Overall Unemployment: 4.4% (4.5%)
African America Unemployment: 7.9% (8.0%)
Latino America Unemployment: 5.2% (5.1%)
European America Unemployment: 3.8% (3.9%)
Asian America Unemployment: 3.2% (3.3%)
Previous month in parentheses.
Analysis: Overall unemployment dropped by 10 basis points. This is the lowest unemployment rate since May 2007. All groups had 10 basis point drops except for Latino America who experienced a 10 basis point increase.
African American Male Unemployment: 7.3% (8.2%)
African American Female Unemployment: 6.9% (6.6%)
African American Teenage Unemployment: 29.3% (24.3%)
African American Male Participation: 68.3% (68.1%)
African American Female Participation: 62.7% (62.7%)
African American Teenage Participation: 30.8% (27.7%)
Analysis: African American Males saw a 90 basis point decrease in unemployment rate and 20 basis point increase in their participation rate. African American Females had a 30 basis point increase in their unemployment rate, while the participation rate went unchanged. Lastly, African American Teenagers unemployment rose by 500 basis points, but also had 310 basis point increase in their participation rate which is the highest over the past five months.
African American Male-Female Job Gap: 974 000 jobs (1.113 million jobs)
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 211 000 jobs in April. This is versus an expected 185 000 by surveyed economists. African America added a significant 105 000 jobs. The positive numbers across the board should help the Federal Reserve move to a rate hike in June. This is the highest employed number, labor force, and participation rate over the past five months for African America. What is driving this continued push up in jobs? Job growth has been largely concentrated in low-wage areas where African Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the labor force. It continues to be a hold your breath month to month with the economy so late in the economic cycle.
African America currently needs 713 000 jobs to match America’s unemployment rate. A decrease of 20 000 from March.
