Black Unemployment Up to Nearly 35 Percent

By: Frederick Cosby

The nation’s economic crisis has been tough for millions of Americans, but times have been especially tough for young black men.

Black men between 16 and 24 years old are struggling with a staggering 34.5 percent unemployment rate, according to federal figures released last month, a Great Depression era-type statistic that’s three times higher than the general U.S. population.

And things aren’t much better for young sisters. Black women between 16 and 24 years old suffer a 26.5 percent jobless rate, while the unemployment rate for all women in that age range is 15.4 percent. The combined jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent.

 

Black Unemployment Up to Nearly 35 Percent....

Unemployment Woes Hitting Harder Among Blacks, Latinos

By: Jesse Washington

The ax fell without sound or shadow: Tatiana Gallego was suddenly called into human resources and laid off from her job as an admissions counselor for a fashion college.

"The way people tried to explain it to me was, I was the last one hired so I was the first one out," said Gallego, 25, who had worked there for 17 months.

Last hired, first fired: This generations-old cliche rings bitterly true for millions of Latinos and blacks who are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this punishing recession.

Much of the disparity is due to a concentration of Latinos and blacks in construction, blue-collar or service-industry jobs that have been decimated by the economic meltdown. And black unemployment has been about double the rate for whites since the government began tracking those categories in the early 1970s.

But this recession is cutting a swath through the professional classes as well, which can be devastating to people who recently arrived there.

Since the recession began in December 2007, Latino unemployment has risen 4.7 percentage points, to 10.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Black unemployment has risen 4.5 points, to 13.4 percent. White unemployment has risen 2.9 points, to 7.3 percent.

Gallego, whose parents were born in Colombia, graduated from the University of Rhode Island. Her mother is self-employed, and her stepfather works in construction.

She was stunned when she was told to pack up and leave by the end of the day because enrollment was down at her New York City school. She said she had recently received a positive performance review, and her bosses were planning to send her to a conference.

"Maybe I just don't know that much about the business world, because I felt like I did more, I went above and beyond more than other people in my office did," she said.

William Darity, a professor of economics and African-American studies at Duke University, said that "blacks and Latinos are relative latecomers to the professional world ... so they are necessarily the most vulnerable."

"We don't have those older roots to anchor us in the professional world," Darity said. "We don't have the same nexus of contacts, the same kind of seniority."

Unemployment Woes Hitting Harder Among Blacks, Latinos....