Black unemployment falls for second consecutive month

(Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News) – For the second month in a row, the nation’s Black unemployment rate decreased, according to the Labor Department figures released for the month of May.

The unemployment rate for Blacks decreased slightly from 11.6 percent in April to 11.5 percent in May and was two percentage points lower than the 13.5 percent rate recorded a year ago. By comparison, the jobless rate for whites barely rose from 5.3 percent in April to 5.4 percent in May.

Black women continued to make modest gains in the job market this year. The unemployment rate for Black women fell from 10.4 percent to 10 percent in May, compared to white women who saw their jobless rate climb from 4.7 percent to 4.9 percent last month.

Last year, more Blacks and whites were either working on looking for jobs, a measure recorded as the labor force participation rate. In May 2013, that rate was 61.7 percent for Blacks and 63.8 percent for whites. Now, the participation rate is 60.8 percent for Blacks and 63.1 percent for whites.

This article originally published in the July 7, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.