Tag Archives: unemployment by race

African America’s July Jobs Report – 8.4%

Posted on August 8, 2016 by | Leave a comment

jobs

Overall Unemployment: 4.9% (4.9%)

African America Unemployment: 8.4% (8.6%)

Latino America Unemployment: 5.4% (5.8%)

European America Unemployment: 4.3% (4.4%)

Asian America Unemployment: 3.8% (3.5%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment was unchanged. All groups except Asian America saw a decline in their unemployment rate, who saw a 30 basis point increase in their unemployment rate. Latino America led the way with the largest decrease of 40 basis points, followed by African America’s 20 basis points, and lastly, European America’s 10 basis points.

African American Male Unemployment: 8.2% (8.2%)

African American Female Unemployment: 7.3% (7.3%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 25.7% (31.2%)

African American Male Participation: 67.7% (67.8%)

African American Female Participation: 61.0% (60.9%)

African American Teenage Participation: 27.7% (29.2%)

Analysis: African American men unemployment rate was unchanged, with 10 basis point decrease in their participation rate. African American women unemployment rate was also unchanged, but a 10 basis point increase in their participation rate. African American teenagers had an decrease of 550 basis points in their unemployment rate, but had a worrisome 150 basis point decrease in their participation rate.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 255 000 jobs in July. African America added only 31 000 jobs in July, a decline from June’s AAJR of 32 000. Again, two straight months of anemic jobs growth for African America after adding 122 000 jobs in May. However, these figures are in line with traditional jobs growth for African America, while May was an anomaly. If there is a current silver lining for African America, it is our banking industry. With an explosion in new deposits and demand for even more new deposits, African American owned banks and credit unions could see a need to increase employment to handle the new demand. That is the short term optimism, while the long term gain could be in new lending for African American small businesses.

African America currently needs 680 000 jobs to match America’s unemployment rate.

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African America’s June Jobs Report – 8.6%

Posted on July 11, 2016 by | Leave a comment

jobs

Overall Unemployment: 4.9% (4.7%)

African America Unemployment: 8.6% (8.2%)

Latino America Unemployment: 5.8% (5.6%)

European America Unemployment: 4.4% (4.1%)

Asian America Unemployment: 3.5% (4.1%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment rose 20 basis points. All groups except Asian America saw a rise in their unemployment rate, who saw a 60 basis point decline in their unemployment rate. African America led the way with the largest increase of 40 basis points, followed by European America’s 30 basis points, and Latino America’s 20 basis points.

African American Male Unemployment: 8.2% (7.6%)

African American Female Unemployment: 7.3% (7.4%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 31.2% (27.1%)

African American Male Participation: 67.8% (67.1%)

African American Female Participation: 60.9% (61.0%)

African American Teenage Participation: 29.2% (28.7%)

Analysis: African American men had a increase of 60 basis points in their unemployment rate, but also experienced a 70 basis point increase in their participation rate. African American women had a decrease of 10 basis points in their unemployment rate, but a 10 basis point decrease in their participation rate. African American teenagers had an increase of 410 basis points in their unemployment rate, but only experienced a 50 basis point increase in their participation rate.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 287 000 jobs in June. African America added only 32 000 jobs in June, making May look like an anomaly when African America gained more jobs than the overall economy. It is hard to be overly excited about June’s numbers after May produced only 38 000 jobs overall. A student who gets a 100 and a 0 on test, still has a F average. However, if July delivers a modestly decent number, it could allow the Federal Reserve to put a rate hike back in play for September, which we are still not sure the economy or market is ready for, but desperately needs to heal itself from a decade of fictional interest rates. The fictional interest rates have killed lending and savings and therefore hampered the creation of small business creation in the country. Those are long-term issues though, but issues nonetheless. In the short term, cultural backlash against African America may have some negative labor impact for the rest of the year given African America’s employment dependency on others.

African America needs to create 721 000 jobs to match the nation’s overall unemployment rate.

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African America’s May Jobs Report – 8.2%

Posted on June 6, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Overall Unemployment: 4.7% (5.0%)

African America Unemployment: 8.2% (8.8%)

Latino America Unemployment: 5.6% (6.1%)

European America Unemployment: 4.1% (4.3%)

Asian America Unemployment: 4.1% (3.8%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment drops 30 basis points. All groups saw a drop in their unemployment rate, except for Asian America who saw a 30 basis point increase. African America led the way with the largest decrease of 60 basis points, followed by Latino America’s 50 basis points, and European America’s 20 basis points.

African American Male Unemployment: 7.6% (9.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 7.4% (6.9%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 27.1% (26.0%)

African American Male Participation: 67.1% (68.1%)

African American Female Participation: 61.0% (60.2%)

African American Teenage Participation: 28.7% (29.2%)

Analysis:African American men had a decrease of 190 basis points in their unemployment rate, but also experienced a 100 basis point drop in their participation rate. African American women had an increase of 50 basis points in their unemployment rate, but an 80 basis point increase in their participation rate. African American teenagers had an increase of 110 basis points in their unemployment rate, but experienced a 50 basis point drop.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 38 000 jobs in May. Repeat, the United States economy added a net of only 38 000 jobs in May. African America added 122 000 jobs in May, an unprecedented moment where African America job growth outpaced the country. The expected job growth for the overall economy was supposed to be 162 000 jobs. This number may put an absolute halt to the Federal Reserve’s hinted expectation of a rate hike in June or July, which many investors have baked into the market. Since HBCU Money inception of the African American Jobs Report never has African America added more jobs than the overall economy. Now that it has, what exactly might this tell us? It may tell us that since African America has the lowest median income of any group of workers, companies are continuing to a lower-skilled workforce in more and more areas. Despite the additional jobs, this number only gets African America back to where it was five months ago when it began a precipitous job decline trend, this obviously putting an abrupt halt to it. It is hard to imagine a scenario where this remains a forward trend, but we will have to wait to see if this month proves to be an outlier all around or perhaps a pivot for African America’s economy, and for once when others are catching a cold, we do not catch pneumonia.

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African America’s April Jobs Report – 8.8%

Posted on May 9, 2016 by | Leave a comment

jobs

Overall Unemployment: 5.0% (5.0%)

African America Unemployment: 8.8% (9.0%)

Latino America Unemployment: 6.1% (5.6%)

European America Unemployment: 4.3% (4.3%)

Asian America Unemployment: 3.8% (4.0%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment rose slightly in the month of April from the previous month. African and Asian American both saw 20 basis point declines.  European America was the only group to go unchanged. Lastly, Latino America has an uptick of 50 basis points in their unemployment rate.

African American Male Unemployment: 9.5% (8.7%)

African American Female Unemployment: 6.9% (8.0%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 26.0% (25.3%)

African American Male Participation: 68.1% (67.2%)

African American Female Participation: 60.2% (61.5%)

African American Teenage Participation: 29.2% (30.5%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis:African American males had a 80 basis point increase in their unemployment rate and a 90 basis point increase in their participation rate. African American females had a 110 basis point decrease in their unemployment rate and a 130 basis point decrease in their participation rate. African American teenagers unemployment rate increased 70 basis points and participation rate experienced a decrease of 130 basis points.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 160 000 jobs in April. African America lost 59 000 jobs in April, the second consecutive decrease in the past five months. The African American labor force also pulled back with a decline of almost 100 000 for a second consecutive month. Nervously, the participation rate is at its lowest over the past five months remains with a very sharp decline of 40 basis points. A divergence from a rate that has been fairly steady as it goes the past five months. There are signs that fresh economic thunderstorms are settling in over the African American economy. The Federal Reserve continues to suppress interest rates, which while keeping the stock market humming along (barely) is also keeping lending tight. The latter being a situation that prevents many of America’s small businesses from hiring and even more potential businesses from even getting off of the ground. If banks can not make enough money off making a loan to a risky small business just opening its doors, then better to park the cash in Treasuries and wait out the interest rate conundrum. Meanwhile, the American economy continues to die a paper cut death. African America’s economy just lost another bank making lending for small businesses and therefore job creation within the community an even higher hurdle to climb, as if jumping over Mount Olympus with a broken leg was not hard enough. Maybe the winds will change, but until the Federal Reserve decides to take the economy off of the low interest rate medicine, then there is very little hope of the economy breaking out into a real sprint. Currently, the downside looks a lot more probable than the upside.

African American needs an increase of 742 000 jobs to match the country’s unemployment rate – a decrease of 37 000 jobs from the previous month.

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African America’s March Jobs Report – 9.0%

Posted on April 4, 2016 by | 1 comment

jobs

Overall Unemployment: 5.0% (4.9%)

African America Unemployment: 9.0% (8.8%)

Latino America Unemployment: 5.6% (5.4%)

European America Unemployment: 4.3% (4.3%)

Asian America Unemployment: 4.0% (3.8%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: Overall unemployment rose slightly in the month of March from the previous month. No group to experienced a decline, while European America was the only group to go unchanged. All other groups saw 20 basis point increases in their unemployment rates.

African American Male Unemployment: 8.7% (8.6%)

African American Female Unemployment: 8.0% (7.9%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 25.3% (23.3%)

African American Male Participation: 67.2% (67.5%)

African American Female Participation: 61.5% (62.0%)

African American Teenage Participation: 30.5% (28.8%)

Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis:African American males had a 10 basis point increase in their unemployment rate and a 30 basis point decrease in their participation rate. African American females had a 10 basis point increase in their unemployment rate and a 50 basis point decrease in their participation rate. African American teenagers unemployment rate increased 200 basis points and participation rate experienced an increase of 170 basis points.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 215 000 jobs in March. African America lost 92 000 jobs in March marking the first decrease in the past five months. The African American labor force also pulled back with a decline of almost 60 000 after three months of growth. Thankfully, participation rate over the past five months remains virtually unchanged meaning that African America’s employment situation is basically doggy paddling in the middle of the economic ocean, still. While some believe that improving job conditions are pulling the rest of the nation off the sideline, it appears to be sending African American to it. This could be largely dependent on the types of jobs and where African America is concentrated. An unusual rise for African American teenagers participation rate, while the adults declined. The market and economy are showing modest growth, but the true sustainability of it remains to be seen with so many negative marks in the global macroeconomic environment.

African American needs an increase of 779 000 jobs to match the country’s unemployment rate – an increase of 20 000 jobs from the previous month.

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