African America’s June Unemployment Report – 13.7%

Overall Unemployment: 7.6% (7.6%)

African America Unemployment: 13.7% (13.5%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.1% (9.1%)

European America Unemployment: 6.7% (6.7%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.0% (4.3%)

Analysis: The unemployment rates overall remains unchanged. Two of the four diaspora groups remain unchanged while the other two saw upticks. Asian America saw a significant uptick but remains the group with the lowest unemployment. African America remains the only group with a double digit unemployment rate.

African American Male Unemployment: 13.0% (13.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 12.0% (11.2%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 43.6% (42.6%)

African American Male Participation: 67.1% (67.9%)

African American Female Participation: 62.3% (62.5%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.1% (28.0%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: African American women and teenagers saw significant upticks in their unemployment rate while the unemployment rate for men saw a moderate decrease. Participation rate for teenagers remain virtually unchanged while men and women both saw decreases. The men saw a substantial drop in their participation rate.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 195 000 jobs in the month of June. African America shows a loss of 112 000 jobs for the month of June. A significant loss after four straight months of positive job growth. The African American labor force shrunk by almost 100 000 and most disturbing is the participation rate as it dropped to its second lowest rate in the past five months. A sign that fatigue is setting in and the desire to find employment is waning. African American women’s participation rate has held steady over the past five months while the men have shown an alarming drop. The continued crisis of African American teenagers proves to be worsening as the group hit a new high again for its unemployment rate which still stands at the third highest in the developed world. It appears the sequester is setting in and unemployment fatigue is starting to take a turn for the negative in the African American community.

Source: Department of Labor