African America’s April Unemployment Report – 11.6%

Overall Unemployment: 6.3% (6.7%)

African America Unemployment: 11.6% (12.4%)

Latino America Unemployment: 7.3% (7.9%)

European America Unemployment: 5.3% (5.8%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.7% (5.4%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: The overall unemployment saw a decrease of 40 basis points. Asian America was the only group to see an increase in its unemployment rate with an increase of 30 basis points. African, European, and Latino America all saw declines in their unemployment rates at 80, 50, and 60 basis points, respectively. African America remains only group with double digit unemployment.

African American Male Unemployment: 10.8% (12.1%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.4% (11.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 36.8% (36.1%)

African American Male Participation: 66.4% (67.0%)

African American Female Participation: 61.7% (62.0%)

African American Teenage Participation: 27.9% (25.6%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: African American male and females both saw declines in their unemployment rates at 130 and 60 basis point drops, respectively. African American teenagers saw an increase of 70 basis points. Participation rates for the male and female groups both saw declines at 60 and 30 basis points, respectively. The teenage group saw an increase of 230 basis points.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 288 000 jobs in the month of April. An increase of 96 000 jobs from March and higher than economists consensus expectations. African America added 119 000 jobs, marking its largest job increase in the past five months. Even with the increase in jobs it comes with some pause. The participation rate can not seem to break out of its band and experienced a drop despite the increase in jobs. There is obvious optimism in the African American economy, but there is not enough of a trend to know if this momentary increase will sustain itself. This is particularly of concern with the government jobs continuing to shrink, where African America is overly dependent on the public sector. Government jobs are at its lowest mark since the recession began and of worth note to continue to watch.