Nation adds jobs elsewhere, but Blacks are left standing in the unemployment line

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(Special from NorthStarNews Today) — The nation’s businesses added 235,000 jobs in February but the companies obviously didn’t hire in the Black community where the unemployment rate went up compared to other racial and ethnic groups where it went down.

The black jobless rate in February was 8.1 percent compared to 7.7 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The jobless rate in the black community went up in February.

The high unemployment rate among African Americans, compared to 4.1 percent in February among whites, was down from 4.3 percent in January. Among Hispanics, the jobless rate was 5.6 percent in February, down from 5.9 percent in January.

The jobless rate among Asians in February was 3.4 percent, down from 3.7 percent in January, BLS reported.

Black men 20 years old and older continue to suffer the highest unemployment rate. In February, it was 7.8 percent, up from 7.3 percent in January.

This compares to a February unemployment rate for white men of 3.8 percent, down from 4.0 percent in January. The February jobless rate among Hispanic men 20 years old and older was 4.6 percent, down from 4.8 percent in January.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide equivalent statistics for Asian men 20 and older.

Black women 20 years old and older also saw an increase in their jobless rate. In February, their unemployment rate was 7.1 percent, up from 6.7 percent in January.

In comparison, February’s unemployment rate for white women 20 years old and older was 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent in January. Hispanics saw big drop in their unemployment in February. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the jobless rate for Hispanic women in February was 5.6 percent, down from 6.3 percent in January.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide equivalent statistics for Asian women 20 and older.

The nation’s overall unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in February.

This article originally published in the March 20, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.