African America’s July Unemployment Report – 12.6%

Overall Unemployment: 7.4% (7.6%)

African America Unemployment: 12.6% (13.7%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.4% (9.1%)

European America Unemployment: 6.6% (6.6%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.7% (5.0%)

Analysis: The unemployment rate overall dropped to 7.4 percent. African America sees the most significant drop although it remains the only group with double digit unemployment. Latino America and Asian America both experience a rise in their unemployment rate with European America’s rate remaining unchanged.

African American Male Unemployment: 12.5% (13.0%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.5% (12.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 41.6% (43.6%)

African American Male Participation: 67.6% (67.1%)

African American Female Participation: 62.0% (62.3%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.4% (28.1%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: All African American groups saw a decline in their unemployment rates. However, the women who showed the most significant decline also saw a decline in their participation rate. African American men saw a significant uptick in their participation rate while the teenagers saw a negligible uptick.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 162 000 jobs in the month of July. African America added 228 000 jobs in the month of July. The 16.3 million employed African Americans is the largest employed number in the past five months. The participation rate overall for African America remains unchanged from June’s numbers showing that there has not been much increase in the civilian labor force of African America. It remains at the second lowest participation rate over the past five months. Essentially, those who have been looking for work have maintained but no new surge in confidence about employment opportunities seem to be grasping the rest of African America’s labor force. The female participation rate had a concerning drop as they are the linchpin group of the African American household. Their participation rate is the lowest it has been in the past five months but their number of employed is at its highest in five months so it is a mixed bag of results. Overall, the statistics appear to be moving in the right direction for African America but should be approached with some caution until we see the civilian labor force numbers increasing in conjunction with the employed numbers.