Black unemployment goes up again while white rates go down
12th December 2011 · 0 Comments
By Hazel Trice Edney
Contributing Writer
(TriceEdneyWire.com) — It’s been like a roller coaster. In March of last year, the Black unemployment rate hit 16.5 percent, the highest yet in more than a decade. Then, in October this year, it dropped from 16 percent to 15.1 percent, the lowest it’s been in two years.
Now, in yet another dramatic turn, the Black unemployment rate for November – in every category – shot back up while the white unemployment rate dropped in every category, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The overall Black unemployment rate rose from 15.1 percent to 15.5 percent; the Black male rate went from 16.2 percent to 16.5 percent; the Black female rate went from 12.6 percent to 12.9 percent; and the Black youth (ages 16-19) rate went from 37.8-39.6 percent.
Compare that with the overall white unemployment rate that dropped from eight percent to 7.6 percent; the white male rate from 7.9 percent to 7.3 percent; the white female rate from 7 percent to 6.9 percent; and the white youth rate from 21.8 percent to 21.4 percent.
To stir the pot, the overall employment rate surprisingly fell from nine percent down to 8.6 percent, delighting the White House where President Obama is fighting for wins in the economy. Yet, his “rising tide lifts all boats” theory doesn’t appear to be working in the Black community. Why not?
Some of this had to do with preferences of employers and who they desire to hire first – in other words, race discrimination, says Dr. Roderick Harrison, a fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who is also founding director of DataBank, an online clearinghouse of data on African- Americans and other ethnic populations.
“It’s like there’s a cue, a waiting line,” says Harrison in an interview. “And yes, Blacks are usually further down on that ladder waiting.”
Harris, who is also a senior researcher at Howard University and former chief of racial statistics at the U.S. Census Bureau, said some of it has to do with education. “The unemployment rate is much higher the less the education,” he said. “The unemployment rate for people with college degrees is only something four percent. So, some of it is attributable to differences in education.”
However, he added, “But even when you compare comparably educated Blacks and Whites, yes, the unemployment rate is typically higher for Blacks than it is for whites and it typically takes longer for unemployed Blacks to find a job than it does whites so unemployment tends to be longer for Blacks. And that is consistent with some notion that employers prefer whites — and so long as they’re available will hire them first.”
Whatever is the reason, CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) isn’t buying any notions that the specific double-digit economic crisis in the Black community should be simply tolerated.
“The time for bold action on jobs is now,” Cleaver said in a statement released in response to the new jobs numbers. “Unemployment for African Americans rose slightly to 15.5 percent from 15.1 percent, which continues to be a crisis that we must address with tangible solutions. Well over 300 days into the 112th Congress with no action on jobs, the Republican leadership continues to bring forth divisive ideas instead of ensuring that we do our job as legislators and pass a comprehensive jobs bill. Senate Republicans had a chance to demonstrate to the American people that they can protect the interests of the American people, but failed. They blocked consideration of three different jobs bills over the past month.”
Encouraging Congress to pass President Obama’s jobs bill, Cleaver referred to the CBC summer experience of touring hardest hit unemployment areas around the nation.
“Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have seen firsthand the devastating economic conditions of millions of African-American families and millions of other American families through our national ‘For the People’ Jobs Initiative,” he said. “CBC members have introduced over 50 job creation bills since the beginning of the 112th Congress, in addition to providing nine job creation recommendations that target the needs of our nation’s most vulnerable communities.”
Despite the apparent suffering in communities across the nation, it is clearly partisan politics that has stymied the ability to compromise on a jobs bill that will pass both houses of Congress. House Speaker John Boehner says Republicans have introduced 20 jobs bills that Senate Democrats refuse to consider.
“I call on the President and Democrats in the Senate to take up these bills. Let the Senate speak. Let the American people speak because I believe all 20 of these bills passed the House with bi-partisan support and they can pass the United States Senate.”
The problem is neither side will budge on issues that undermine their deep philosophical differences.
Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan, rolled out before a joint session of Congress in late summer, includes lower payroll taxes, money for hiring more teachers and infrastructure spending. Democrats believe that educational spending, job training and other programs will help prepare people to get jobs and better-paying jobs.
Republicans are more concerned about where the money will come from to pay for the programs. They accuse Democrats of borrowing and mounting debt in order to fix a broken economy.
This article was originally published in the December 12, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
