Tag Archives: jobs

African America’s September Unemployment Report – 12.9%

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Overall Unemployment: 7.2% (7.3%)

African America Unemployment: 12.9% (13.0%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.0% (9.3%)

European America Unemployment: 6.3% (6.4%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.3% (5.1%)

Analysis: Overall unemployment dropped 10 basis points. African, European, and Latino Americans saw decreases in their unemployment rates with Latinos seeing the most notable decrease. Asian America saw an uptick but still maintains the lowest unemployment rate of all groups. African America continues to be the only group in double digits.

African American Male Unemployment: 14.0% (13.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.0% (10.6%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 35.1% (38.2%)

African American Male Participation: 67.9% (66.6%)

African American Female Participation: 61.2% (61.5%)

African American Teenage Participation: 29.4% (28.9%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: The unemployment rate for African American men sees a healthy rise of 50 basis points, but participation rate sees its highest number in the past 5 months. African American women see their unemployment rate drop. It worryingly is dropping on the back of the fifth straight month of participation decline for African American women. The teenage group is the only one of the three who sees a drop in unemployment rate and rise in participation. A rare double win for any of the three groups.

Conclusion: The economy added 148 000 jobs as a whole. African American saw a net plus of 151 000 new jobs. The good news is that government hiring picked up, which favors African American employment rising. The bad news is that African America is still too dependent on government employment, something that will continue to be in the crosshairs as governments deal with pension liabilities and other debt. In September, the number of employed African Americans falls dead in the middle with no real trend upwards or downwards over the past five months. The participation rate is at its second lowest over the past five months, but sees its first uptick after four months of straight declines. At this point, the data is hard to get a trending pattern of African American unemployment either way. It could be that for now – no news is good news (or bad news).

African America’s August Unemployment Report – 13.0%

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Overall Unemployment: 7.3% (7.4%)

African America Unemployment: 13.0% (12.6%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.3% (9.4%)

European America Unemployment: 6.4% (6.6%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.1% (5.7%)

Analysis: The unemployment rate overall dropped to 7.3 percent. African America is the only group to see their unemployment rate rise and maintains itself firmly in the double digits. Asian America has the most significant drop. Latino and European America saw negligible drops.

African American Male Unemployment: 13.5% (12.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.6% (10.5%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 38.2% (41.6%)

African American Male Participation: 66.6% (67.6%)

African American Female Participation: 61.5% (62.0%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.9% (28.4%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: The unemployment rate for African American men saw an significant uptick coupled with a dropping participation rate. African American women also experienced an uptick in their unemployment rate while participation rate dropped. Only the teenage group showed improvement in its unemployment rate and participation rate.

Conclusion: The economy added 169 000 new jobs overall. African America saw a decline a 210 000 in its employed ranks. It is the second lowest number of employed African Americans in the past five months and by far its biggest drop in employment over that same period. African America’s labor force is at its lowest in the past five months. The labor force number indicating that many African Americans are simply giving up on the chance of finding employment. The one bit of light in the coal mine is that African American teenagers picked up 30 000 jobs. Overall,  almost every piece of unemployment data is the worse it has been in five months. A frightening measure as many African American families head back into the school year needing to providing more not less.

African America’s July Unemployment Report – 12.6%

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Overall Unemployment: 7.4% (7.6%)

African America Unemployment: 12.6% (13.7%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.4% (9.1%)

European America Unemployment: 6.6% (6.6%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.7% (5.0%)

Analysis: The unemployment rate overall dropped to 7.4 percent. African America sees the most significant drop although it remains the only group with double digit unemployment. Latino America and Asian America both experience a rise in their unemployment rate with European America’s rate remaining unchanged.

African American Male Unemployment: 12.5% (13.0%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.5% (12.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 41.6% (43.6%)

African American Male Participation: 67.6% (67.1%)

African American Female Participation: 62.0% (62.3%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.4% (28.1%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: All African American groups saw a decline in their unemployment rates. However, the women who showed the most significant decline also saw a decline in their participation rate. African American men saw a significant uptick in their participation rate while the teenagers saw a negligible uptick.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 162 000 jobs in the month of July. African America added 228 000 jobs in the month of July. The 16.3 million employed African Americans is the largest employed number in the past five months. The participation rate overall for African America remains unchanged from June’s numbers showing that there has not been much increase in the civilian labor force of African America. It remains at the second lowest participation rate over the past five months. Essentially, those who have been looking for work have maintained but no new surge in confidence about employment opportunities seem to be grasping the rest of African America’s labor force. The female participation rate had a concerning drop as they are the linchpin group of the African American household. Their participation rate is the lowest it has been in the past five months but their number of employed is at its highest in five months so it is a mixed bag of results. Overall, the statistics appear to be moving in the right direction for African America but should be approached with some caution until we see the civilian labor force numbers increasing in conjunction with the employed numbers.

African American Teenage Unemployment: 3rd Highest In Developed World

By William A. Foster, IV

You can be young without money but you can’t be old without it. – Aristotle

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There is an unemployment epidemic in African American teenage unemployment. Its ramifications will indict an entire generation of our youth if it is not confronted. Yet, it continues to get brushed under the rug assuming anyone acknowledges it at all. A recent report by the International Labor Organization addressing high youth unemployment in the European Union is quoted as saying “There is a price to be paid for entering the labor market during hard economic times. Much has been learned about “scarring” in terms of future earning power and labor market transition paths. Perhaps the most important scarring is in terms of the current youth generation’s distrust in the socio‐economic and political systems.” However, there seems to be little attention being given to the plight of African American teenagers. Below is a look at a graph of European youth unemployment followed by the US Department of Labor’s view of African American teenage unemployment.

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Scarring is the term that economist use in describing long-term unemployment for youth. This is because the compounding impact of it for the individual, household, and community ends up being much like a wound that is almost impossible to heal. Individually, African American teenagers are missing out on the basics of developing work ethic, work skills, networking through employment, early professional success which builds long-term confidence, and a host of other qualitative factors that tend to impact an individuals career trajectory. Because there is high teenage unemployment in African American households and communities it goes without saying that idle time is the devil’s playground. The increased idle time increases the probability of counterproductive behavior especially when there is such an acute quantity of unemployed teenagers.

The economic implications are profound. If we assume a teenager starts working at sixteen and is making minimum wage while working 20 hours a week average, they would earn $6 786 annually after taxes. It does not seem like much on face value but let us dig a little deeper. Let us assume the teenager gives $2 400 a year to the household income, puts aside $1 500 a year for college or vocational training, and lastly puts the remaining $2 886 in a Roth IRA account. First, 38.2 percent of African Americans are in poverty (see chart below) according to the National Poverty Center so an extra $200 a month can often mean the difference between a refrigerator full of groceries and malnutrition for a family. Malnutrition which has been shown to have not only health implications but long-term correlations to academic consequences for children in a household as well. The savings for college would allow the teenager to start college at eighteen with $4 500 in savings. This small amount should not have severe implications on a students’ financial aid but it could be the difference between a student purchasing books at the beginning of the semester as opposed to waiting on their refund which puts students behind during a semester and impacts their chances of academic success and ultimately their ability to graduate in a timely manner. Anyone who has attended an HBCU can readily attest to this reality either for themselves or classmates in experience. Lastly, the $11 544 invested in a Roth IRA after four years with average returns would be approximately $15 000 towards retirement saved at the age of 20. However, they can not touch this retirement account until they are 65. If they did not add another dollar to it and just continued with average returns over the next 45 years that account would be worth $2.5 million by retirement.

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The International Labor Organization calls for the following actions to address youth unemployment:

  • Fostering pro-employment growth and decent job creation through macroeconomic policies, employability, labour market policies, youth entrepreneurship and rights to tackle the social consequences of the crisis, while ensuring financial and fiscal sustainability.
  • Comprehensive measures targeting disadvantaged young people in advanced economies with high numbers of unemployed youth. These include education, training, work experience support and recruitment incentives for potential employers.
  • Integrated employment and livelihoods strategies and programmes in developing countries, including training in literacy, occupational and entrepreneurial skills and business support.

These solutions could be applied here in the United States and certainly could be implemented on a more micro level by community organizations operating within African American communities and give a good base for starting to stem the tide. There are 1.9 million African American owned businesses, but 1.8 million of them have no employees. These young people offer an affordable labor option for African American small businesses that in exchange could provide them priceless experience and professional building. Unfortunately, most African American teenagers are ill-equipped for very basic work beyond physical labor so training programs are vital. A difficult task to meet as local city and state budgets are cutting job training programs not expanding them. Therefore, community centered solutions must be examined. Any belief that there will be government assistance or grants should be viewed as no more than a bonus if an organization can get it.

African American teenagers are a silent group suffering and their current condition do not bode well as the stated above reasons show for African America’s future economic condition. They have the least voice among any group it appears in America but given the percentage of African American single parent households are arguably the second most important wage earner in the family. If the children are our (economic) future as Whitney Houston once said, then the future economic condition is looking bleaker and bleaker for African Americans.

African America’s May Unemployment Report – 13.5%

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Overall Unemployment: 7.6% (7.5%)

African America Unemployment: 13.5% (13.2%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.1% (9.0%)

European America Unemployment: 6.7% (6.7%)

Asian America Unemployment: 4.3% (5.1%)

Analysis: Overall unemployment saw a rise primarily due to a rise in the number of people entering the labor force. African America saw the largest rise in unemployment rate among all groups. Latino and European America experienced virtually no change. Asian America was the only group with a significant drop in its unemployment rate. African America remains the only group with double digit unemployment.

African American Male Unemployment: 13.5% (12.6%)

African American Female Unemployment: 11.2% (11.6%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 42.6% (40.5%)

African American Male Participation: 67.9% (67.4%)

African American Female Participation: 62.5% (62.3%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.0% (27.5%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: African American male unemployment saw a sharp uptick. African American women saw another healthy decline in their unemployment rate. The teenage group continues to see significant rises in unemployment. All three groups saw a rise in their participation rates suggesting more African Americans looking for work in the month of May.

Conclusion: The overall economy added 175 000 in the month of May. African America after adding 100 000 jobs last month in April only added an estimated 35 000 jobs in May. There just does not seem to be much to enjoy right now if you are African America still trying to recover from over 5 years ago now. Job growth in the private sector for African America is moving at a snail pace if it is moving at all. The continued crisis that is African American teenage unemployment continues unabated. Civilian labor force (those looking for work) has picked up for a second straight month but it is fairly apparent there are not many places for them to go. African American men have lost 70 000 jobs over the past two months. Thankfully, African American women have netted 260 000 jobs over that same two month stretch. Given the latter group is more vital to African American households economically speaking they are once again carrying the majority of the household burden. African American teenagers have lost 60 000 jobs over the past two months as well. It appears while more African Americans are looking for jobs it might be more a result of the continuing job loss for African America not job gains that is spurring them to do so.