African America’s October Unemployment Report – 13.1%

Overall Unemployment: 7.3% (7.2%)

African America Unemployment: 13.1% (12.9%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.1% (9.0%)

European America Unemployment: 6.3% (6.3%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.2% (5.3%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment ticked up by 10 basis points. African and Latino American unemployment rate ticked upward by 20 and 10 basis points, respectively. European American unemployment rate remained unchanged. Asian Americans were the only group to see a decline in their unemployment rate. African America remains the only group with double digit unemployment.

African American Male Unemployment: 13.0% (14.0%)

African American Female Unemployment: 11.5% (10.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 36.0% (35.1%)

African American Male Participation: 66.8% (67.9%)

African American Female Participation: 61.3% (61.2%)

African American Teenage Participation: 27.3% (29.4%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: African American male unemployment drops, but male participation rate also declines by 110 basis points. African American female unemployment see the inverse of males with unemployment rising, while female participation rate bumps up 10 basis points. African American teenagers suffered a double blow of of a rising unemployment rate, while their participation rate dropped by 210 basis points.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 204 000 jobs in October. However, African America saw a decline of 184 000 jobs. The uncertain pattern going into last month has cleared up, but unfortunately the certainty that has come is grimace. Four key employment metrics: labor force, number of employed, employment-population ratio, and participation rate are all at five month lows. The number of unemployed is at its second highest in five months. There is no lipstick to put on this current pig. The best hope there is right now is temporary hiring due to the holidays the next few months, but there is very little in the way for optimism based on current employment patters in African America.