Analysis: African Americans were the only group to see an increase in their unemployment rate from August with a 40 basis point increase. Asian and Latino American both had decreases in their unemployment rate with a 30 basis point decrease for both groups from August.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
African American Men: 5.3%
African American Women: 5.3%
African American Teenagers: 18.8%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
African American Men: 67.5%
African American Women: 63.6%
African American Teenagers: 31.0%
Analysis: African American Men and Women both saw and increase and decrease in their unemployment rates by 60 and 20 basis points, respectively. African American Men saw a 20 basis point increase in their participation rate from August while African American Women had a 10 basis point decrease in their participation rate from August. African American Teenagers remain an extremely volatile group with their unemployment rate skyrocketing by 710 basis points, but also seeing their participation rate increase by 260 basis points. For African American Teenagers both unemployment rate and participation rate are at 5 month highs.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 970,000 more jobs than African American Men in October. This is a increase from 739,000 in September.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 150,000 jobs in October. African America lost 15,000 jobs in October. From CNN, “Last month’s job gains are the lowest since June, but there is a caveat: The October total reflects a 35,000-job decline in the manufacturing sector, specifically 33,200 jobs lost in the motor vehicles and parts industry. Those declines were largely attributed to strike activity.”
Analysis: African Americans were the only group to see an increase in their unemployment rate from August with a 40 basis point increase. Asian and Latino American both had decreases in their unemployment rate with a 30 basis point decrease for both groups from August.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 5.6%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 4.5%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 24.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 68.6%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 62.6%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 31.8%
Analysis: African American Men and Women both saw and increase and decrease in their unemployment rates by 60 and 20 basis points, respectively. African American Men saw a 20 basis point increase in their participation rate from August while African American Women had a 10 basis point decrease in their participation rate from August. African American Teenagers remain an extremely volatile group with their unemployment rate skyrocketing by 710 basis points, but also seeing their participation rate increase by 260 basis points. For African American Teenagers both unemployment rate and participation rate are at 5 month highs.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 778,000 more jobs than African American Men in September. This is a increase from 739,000 in August.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added an unbridled 336,000 jobs in September. African America added only 20,000 jobs in September. From USA Today, “While strong job gains are normally welcomed, the report likely raises the odds that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again next month to tamp down job and wage growth that could be fueling inflation, says economist Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics. A separate report this week showed that job openings jumped in August after trending lower in prior months.”
Analysis: African Americans were the only group to see a decrease in their unemployment rate from July with a 50 basis point decrease. Asian American led all others with the largest increase in unemployment rate with a 80 basis point increase from July.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 5.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 4.7%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 16.9%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 68.4%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 62.7%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 29.2%
Analysis: African American Men and Women both saw declines in their unemployment rates by 30 and 50 basis points, respectively. African American Men saw a 10 basis point increase in their participation rate from July while African American Women a 30 basis point decrease in their participation rate from July. African American Teenagers remain an extremely volatile group with their unemployment rate plummeting by 380 basis points, but also seeing their participation rate increase by 100 basis points.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 739,000 more jobs than African American Men in August. This is a decrease from 777,000 in July.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 187,000 jobs in August. African America added 100,000 jobs in August. From Reuters, “U.S. job growth picked up in August, but the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% and wage gains moderated, suggesting that labor market conditions were easing and cementing expectations that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates this month. The closely watched employment report from the Labor Department on Friday also showed 736,000 people entered the job market last month, boosting the participation rate to the highest level in 3-1/2 years. Concerns about an economic slowdown are probably luring people back into the labor market.”
Analysis: Latino Americans were the only group to see an increase in their unemployment rate from June with a 10 basis point increase. Asian American led all others with the largest decrease in unemployment rate with a 90 basis point decrease from June.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 5.3%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 5.2%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 20.7%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 68.3%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 63.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 28.2%
Analysis: African American Men and Women both saw declines in their unemployment rates by 60 and 20 basis points, respectively. African American Men saw a 30 basis point increase in their participation rate from June while African American Women a marginal 10 basis point increase in their participation rate from June. African American Teenagers remain an extremely volatile group with their unemployment rate spiking by 510 basis points (bad news), but also seeing their participation rate decrease by 160 basis points (worse news).
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 777,000 more jobs than African American Men in July. This is a decrease from 835,000 in June.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 187,000 jobs in July. African America added 94,000 jobs in July. From Yahoo Finance, “Job gains in July were the least since December 2020. Over the last year, job gains have now averaged 312,000 per month. Wages, a closely watched indicator of how much leverage workers are exerting in the labor market, rose more than expected last month, rising 0.4% on a monthly basis and 4.4% over last year. Economists expected wages to rise 0.3% over last month and 4.2% over last year.”
Beyond HBCUs, the Divine 9 maybe African America’s most well known set of social institutions. In existence since 1906 at the founding of Alphi Phi Alpha to the last formation of Iota Phi Theta in 1963 these nine African American social organizations have immense cultural capital among African America’s higher educated families. Reportedly with 4 million members across all nine organizations, this membership constitutes roughly 10 percent of the African American population. Many African American families establishing legacy ties to certain Divine 9 organizations while more show a diverse engagement with families often having members among a few of the Divine 9. Like most fraternity and sorority organizations, members join during their undergraduate matriculation, although there are opportunities to join beyond that. There of course is also a financial cost (often significant) to join and maintain active membership with these social organizations.
The Divine 9 often promote themselves to be engaged in community involvement, scholarship, networking, and the like. Typically social organizations are a fundamental aspect that precludes economic institutions and development. As such one could argue that the Divine 9 should be able to be galvanize some aspects of economic institutional development for African America. But what exactly is the financial health of the Divine 9 themselves?
HBCU Money took at look at the most recent tax filings available through ProPublica that each organization has available. *The filings land between 2019-2021 making a flat observation not possible and highlighting one of the issues around financial transparency and consistency that many African Americans complain about in regards to African American institutions. Previous year in parentheses.
DIVINE 9Combined
Revenues: $120 million ($109.4 million)
Investment Income: $2 million ($1.1 million)
Investment Income As % of Revenue: 1.7% (1%)
Expenses: $93.3 million ($95.7 million)
Total Key Employees’ Compensation: $12.7 million (N/A)
HBCU Money 