Overall Unemployment: 7.5% (7.6%)
African America Unemployment: 13.2% (13.3%)
Latino America Unemployment: 9.0% (9.2%)
European America Unemployment: 6.7% (6.7%)
Asian America Unemployment: 5.1% (5.0%)
Analysis: The overall unemployment rate is down. African and Latino America were the only communities to see a decline in their rates. An extremely rare occurrence. European America was unchanged and Asian America saw a slight uptick. African America continues to be the only group with double digit unemployment.
African American Male Unemployment: 12.6% (12.7%)
African American Female Unemployment: 11.6% (12.2%)
African American Teenage Unemployment: 40.5% (33.8%)
African American Male Participation: 67.4% (68.1%)
African American Female Participation: 62.3% (61.3%)
African American Teenage Participation: 27.5% (27.6%)
*Previous month in parentheses.
Analysis: Men and women groups saw declines in their unemployment rates. The teenage group saw almost a 20 percent rise in their unemployment rate from last month. Participation rates saw a promising rise for women while men saw a weighty drop. The African American teenage participation rate remain fairly unchanged.
Conclusion: America overall added only 165 000 jobs in the month of April. African America netted 99 000 new jobs. African American men and teenagers loss 51 000 and 49 000 new jobs, respectively. Thankfully, African American women experienced a net of 199 000 jobs. For the third month in a row African America has seen an overall increase in employment. African American women by far the most important economic group in African America is experiencing its highest employment in the past 5 months. African American men are still above their 5 months low but starting to trend downward in their employment numbers. The participation rate for men has reached its 5 month low while the women has reached its second highest participation rate over the past 5 months. The teenage group’s employment continues to be erratic, unstable, and appears to be trending downward. The group (women) that is the most economically important is also the most economically burdened carrying much of African America’s fate on its shoulders and once again appears to be finding that weight trending upward. Overall, participation is at its second highest rate in the past 5 months. Whether that can be maintained while bringing the men and teenage groups back into the fold to spread the economic burden is yet to be seen. The sequester while taking its toll has not been as negatively impactful as originally thought given African America’s dependency on public sector employment. While things do seem to be getting better or at the very least not getting worse, in order for African America to even reach a 9.9 percent unemployment rate it would need to add 600 000 jobs.
HBCU Money 