HBCU Money

Overall Unemployment: 6.1% (6.3%)

African America Unemployment: 10.7% (11.5%)

Latino America Unemployment: 7.8% (7.7%)

European America Unemployment: 5.3% (5.4%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.1% (5.3%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: The overall unemployment rate dropped 20 basis points. Latino America was the only group to see a rise in their unemployment rate ticking up 10 basis points. African America saw the largest decline with an 80 basis point drop. Asian and European Americans saw drops of 20 and 10 basis points, respectively. African America continues to be the only group with double digit unemployment.

African American Male Unemployment: 10.9% (11.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 9.0% (10.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 33.4% (31.1%)

African American Male Participation: 67.5% (66.8%)

African American Female Participation: 61.4% (61.2%)

African American Teenage Participation: 27.8% (27.9%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: African American males see a drop of 60 basis points in their unemployment rate and an increase in 70 basis points in their participation rate. African American females saw a drop of 100 basis points in their unemployment rate, but a tempered increase of only 20 basis points in their participation rate. African American teenagers suffer a number of setbacks with increases in their unemployment rate by 230 basis points and decrease in participation rate by 10 basis points.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 288 000 jobs in June. Significantly more than economist expected after previous months failed to live up to expectations. African America picked up 220 000 jobs in June, completely shattering the abysmal previous months job growth. However, despite this record breaking month of jobs the participation rate is virtually unmoved. An increase of 20 basis points to 61.0 percent, which is not even the high among the previous five months. African America’s participation rate continues to be stuck in a tight band between 60.5 to 61.5 percent. Both men and women were net gainers of jobs for African America, but women who picked up the most jobs have a participation rate that is still the second lowest it has been over the past five months. The teenage group which is highly vulnerable is backsliding at a time of year when teenage unemployment should be picking up. The economy for all intentions “feels” better, but African America could be in for a rude awakening after the midterm elections if the Federal Reserve starts to hint at a rate hike, which might cause companies to lay workers off to keep their equity prices at their current levels. Currently, African American needs approximately 150 000 jobs to get its unemployment rate to 9.9 percent.