Black unemployment rates have been double-digit since 2002. [more]
New jobs have been popping up by the
hundreds of thousands each month as the U.S. economy continues to gain
momentum. But unlike the recoveries from the recessions of the early
1980s and 1990s, the prospects for black adults searching for work have
been getting worse, not better, after three years of economic
expansion. The situation carries implications beyond the lives of the
disadvantaged. But in the current recovery, the seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate for black men 20 and older is rising. In February it
was 10.9 percent, up from 9.3 percent a year earlier. The jobless rate
for black adult women was 9.1 percent last month, up from 8.8 percent a
year earlier. In contrast, the unemployment rate for white men was 4.1
percent in February, down from 4.6 percent a year earlier. The jobless
rate for white women was 3.9 percent last month, a decline from 4.2
percent in February 2004. In 1992, in the wake of another recession,
the unemployment rate for black men peaked at 13.7 percent. By 1995, it
was 7.7 percent. "High jobless rates, particularly among young black
males, lead to greater crime, drug addiction and family breakups," said
William Julius Wilson, director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty
Research Program at Harvard University. [more]
The poverty rate for Blacks in 2003 was 24.4%
The poverty rate for Hispanics in 2003 was 22.5 percent
Wealth is racially divided.
13.1 percent of white households had zero or negative net worth in
2001, while this was true for 30.9 percent of black households. The
median financial wealth (holdings of stocks, bonds, cash, and the like)
of blacks was a paltry $1,100; for whites it was $42,100. [more]
The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped from 6.4 percent to 5.7 percent in March, according to recently released data from the U.S. Labor Department. [more]
