Analysis: European Americans unemployment rate has been at 3.8 percent for four of the past five months. Asian Americans decreased 10 basis points and Latino Americans increased 20 basis points from October, respectively. African Americans unemployment rate increased 70 basis points from October. This is the highest African American unemployment rate in the past five months.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 6.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 6.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS: 18.1%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 68.7%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 62.3%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS: 27.8%
Analysis: African American Men saw an increase in their unemployment rate by 30 basis points and African American Women increased by 110 basis points. African American Men decreased their participation rate in November by 60 basis points. African American Women decreased in their participation rate in November by 30 basis points. African American Teenagers unemployment rate increased by 90 basis points. African American Teenagers saw their participation rate decrease by 120 basis points in November, they are now at their second lowest participation rate in the past five months.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 640,000 more jobs than African American Men in November. This is an decrease from 693,000 in October.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 220,000 jobs in November while African America lost 276,000 jobs. From Yahoo! Finance, “Hurricanes and a strike by Boeing (BA) workers weighed heavily on the October report, which was revised to show there were 36,000 jobs created last month. The unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in October. Job growth for September was also revised higher on Friday, with revisions now indicating the US economy added 56,000 more jobs than initially reported over those two months.”
At the end of 2023, African America had asset values totaling $6.54 trillion and liability values totaling $1.55 trillion. This is an increase of $330 billion and $40 billion, respectively. Below is a breakdown of that wealth by assets and liabilities as reported by the Federal Reserve’s Distribution of Household Wealth data. African American assets amounted to 4% of U.S. Household and African American liabilities amounted to 8.3% of U.S. Household liabilities. This is a 100 basis points decline in assets from 2022 and 50 basis points decline in liabilities from 2022.
HBCU Money took a look at what exactly the African American asset portfolio entailed. African Americans are highly concentrated in two main areas, real estate and retirement accounts (pensions and 401K), respectively. These two groups comprise over 70 percent of African American assets versus only 43 percent for European Americans. Corporate equities/mutual funds and private business ownership comprise a staggering 35.3 percent of European American assets versus only 9.2 percent for African Americans, these two categories also representing African America’s lowest asset holdings.
Examining where African America puts its money and theorizing why can give us insight into strategies that can help in closing both household and institutional wealth gaps.
ASSETS
Real estate – $2.24 trillion
Definition: Real estate is defined as the land and any permanent structures, like a home, or improvements attached to the land, whether natural or man-made.
% of African America’s Assets – 34.3%
% of U.S. Household Real Estate Assets – 5.0%
4.2% increase from 2022
Consumer durable goods – $570 billion (3.6% increase from 2022)
Definition: Consumer durables, also known as durable goods, are a category of consumer goods that do not wear out quickly and therefore do not have to be purchased frequently. They are part of core retail sales data and are considered durable because they last for at least three years, as the U.S. Department of Commerce defines. Examples include large and small appliances, consumer electronics, furniture, and furnishings.
% of African America’s Assets – 8.7%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 7.2%
3.6% increase from 2022
Corporate equities and mutual fund shares – $270 billion
Definition: A stock, also known as equity, is a security that represents the ownership of a fraction of the issuing corporation. Units of stock are called “shares” which entitles the owner to a proportion of the corporation’s assets and profits equal to how much stock they own. A mutual fund is a pooled collection of assets that invests in stocks, bonds, and other securities.
% of African America’s Assets – 4.3%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 0.7%
17.4% increase from 2022
Defined benefit pension entitlements – $1.66 trillion
Definition: Defined-benefit plans provide eligible employees with guaranteed income for life when they retire. Employers guarantee a specific retirement benefit amount for each participant based on factors such as the employee’s salary and years of service.
% of African America’s Assets – 25.4%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 9.5%
3.1% increase from 2022
Defined contribution pension entitlements – $730 billion
Definition: Defined-contribution plans are funded primarily by the employee. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is a 401(k). Participants can elect to defer a portion of their gross salary via a pre-tax payroll deduction. The company may match the contribution if it chooses, up to a limit it sets.
% of African America’s Assets – 11.2%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 5.6%
21.7% increase from 2022
Private businesses – $330 billion
Definition: A private company is a firm held under private ownership. Private companies may issue stock and have shareholders, but their shares do not trade on public exchanges and are not issued through an initial public offering (IPO). As a result, private firms do not need to meet the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) strict filing requirements for public companies.1 In general, the shares of these businesses are less liquid, and their valuations are more difficult to determine.
% of African America’s Assets – 5.0%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 2.1%
5.7% decrease from 2022
Other assets – $740 billion
Definition: Alternative investments can include private equity or venture capital, hedge funds, managed futures, art and antiques, commodities, and derivatives contracts.
% of African America’s Assets – 11.3%
% of U.S. Household Assets – 2.7%
2.8% increase from 2022
LIABILITIES
Home Mortgages– $770 billion
Definition: Debt secured by either a mortgage or deed of trust on real property, such as a house and land. Foreclosure and sale of the property is a remedy available to the lender. Mortgage debt is a debt that was voluntarily incurred by the owner of the property, either for purchase of the property or at a later point, such as with a home equity line of credit.
% of African America’s Liabilities – 50.3%
% of U.S. Household Liabilities – 6.0%
1.3% increase from 2022
Consumer Credit – $710 billion
Definition: Consumer credit, or consumer debt, is personal debt taken on to purchase goods and services. Although any type of personal loan could be labeled consumer credit, the term is more often used to describe unsecured debt of smaller amounts. A credit card is one type of consumer credit in finance, but a mortgage is not considered consumer credit because it is backed with the property as collateral.
% of African America’s Liabilities – 47.7%
% of U.S. Household Liabilities – 14.8%
4.2% increase from 2022
Other Liabilities – $30 billion
Definition: For most households, liabilities will include taxes due, bills that must be paid, rent or mortgage payments, loan interest and principal due, and so on. If you are pre-paid for performing work or a service, the work owed may also be construed as a liability.
Unity National Bank, headquartered in Houston, Texas, with $209 million in assets, is the eighth largest African American owned bank by assets. It is located just a stone’s throw away from Texas Southern University. Recently the bank named Pedro Bryant, a Morris Brown College alum, its new CEO and President. Unity National Bank has an immense opportunity to move up the rankings for African American banks with the right strategy. According to an Apartment List report in February 2024, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Austin rank as the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh best cities in the US for African American professionals. Lendio also reports that Texas is home to over 400,000 African American owned businesses and almost 13,000 are employer firms. These ingredients mean that with Unity National Bank being the only African American owned bank in the state the runway for growth is theirs to capture. This also means a strengthening of ties between HBCUs and the African America private sector are that much stronger. The lack of cohesion between the two institutions (100 HBCUs and 16 African American owned banks) has largely been one of the key ingredients holding back the African American economy as intellectual and economic capital rarely circulates between HBCUs and the African American owned employer firms.
“Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.” – Marcus Garvey
“Frank attended Morehouse College and Fisk University. While in school he learned about homesteading and its requirements. While working as a teacher in Georgia, he married Ella Louise McGruder. Ella was also a well-educated teacher, a graduate from the Haines Institute.
After he was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, Frank’s father encouraged him to move West. Frank’s father was a Buffalo Soldier during the Mexican-American War. As a child he heard stories about New Mexico from his father. Boyer and two of his students traveled to New Mexico Territory in 1896. He arrived in the Pecos River Valley in 1898 near the community of Roswell, where he worked in the courts. In 1901 Ella and their four children joined him in New Mexico.” – National Park Service
New Mexico jointed the United States as the 47th state in the United States on January 6, 1912. It is currently home to approximately 2.1 million people with almost 40,000 African Americans across the state’s population. In 1999, the state established the Office of African American Affairs that has been tasked with assisting the interests of the state’s African American population. Blackdom’s legacy is still profound among the residents of the state and still signifies the power of building institutions and community that look to empower people of African descent. New Mexico PBS in 2010 produced a documentary detailing the story of a time not so long ago and the impact it still carries today. The story of how an HBCU couple changed the landscape of the Southwest forever and added to the rich history of African Americans place throughout.
Analysis: European Americans unemployment rate rose 30 basis points in their unemployment rate. Asian Americans decreased 40 basis points and Latino Americans similarly increased 40 basis points from July, respectively. African Americans for a second straight month had no change in their unemployment rate.
AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 6.6%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 5.5%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS: 13.1%
AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 69.7%
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 63.0%
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS: 27.6%
Analysis: African American Men saw an increase in their unemployment rate by 50 basis points and African American Women decreased by 20 basis points. African American Men increased their participation rate in July by 60 basis points. African American Women decreased in their participation rate in July by 70 basis points. African American Teenagers unemployment rate decreased by a volatile 380 basis points. African American Teenagers saw their participation rate decrease by 170 basis points in July, they are now at their lowest participation rate in the past five months for the second straight month.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 747,000 more jobs than African American Men in July. This is an increase from 646,000 in June.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 114,000 jobs in July while African America added 169,000 jobs. In a rarity, African America added more jobs than the overall economy meaning other groups took losses. From Barrons, “Government data on Friday showed a smaller-than-expected gain of 114,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%—a nearly three-year high. The figure likely puts more pressure on the Federal Reserve: The central bank has kept interest rates elevated to bring down inflation, but also must manage the other side of its dual mandate, which is to pursue maximum employment.”
