High jobless rate for Black college graduates

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(Special from NorthStarNews Today) – For too many Black college graduates, it’s congratulations for a job well done and welcome to the unemployment line because racial discrimination still rules the work place.

The unemployment rate for Black college graduates is typically twice as high as white college graduates, the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank reported on earlier this month.

The report noted that Black college graduates are the last ones to feel the economic benefits during a recovery, according to a report titled, “Unemployment for young Black grads is still worse than it was for young white grads in the aftermath of the recession,” which began in the fourth quarter of 2007 and ended in the second quarter of 2009.

“These realities are reflected in the fact that the unemployment rate for young Black graduates is still worse today than it ever was for whites in the aftermath of Great Recession,” EPI reported.

Young Black college graduates — 24 to 29 years old — currently have an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, higher than the peak unemployment rate for young white college graduates during the recovery, which was 9.0 percent. The unemployment rate for white college graduates is now 4.7 percent.

“The fact that having an equivalent amount of education and a virtual blank slate of prior professional work experience still does not generate parity in unemployment across race is evidence that factors such as discrimination, or unequal access to the informal networks that often lead to job opportunities are in play,” EPI concluded.

This article originally published in the May 23, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.