Final Pre-Election Jobs Report Ominous for Black Workers
By The NorthStar News Staff
The NorthStar Network
The last Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report prior to the November 2 election was filled with more bad news for Black workers. After months of promises by the Bush administration that the economic recovery would kick into high gear, the BLS report for September revealed that only 96,000 new jobs were created for the month. It was another lackluster month, as the so-called jobless recovery remains stalled. Over the last three months the BLS reports payroll employment rose by 103,000 on average. The grim jobs report held more bad news for Blacks seeking employment, as chronic joblessness continues to be racially defined.
One of the most underreported aspects of the nation’s faltering economy has been the disproportionate impact upon Blacks in the work force. While there has been discussion on topics as broad as outsourcing and productivity, little attention has been given to the manner in which Black have been displaced under the current White House administration.
It is generally accepted that the events of September 11, 2001 were principally responsible for bringing the nation’s economy to a grinding halt, affecting consumer confidence and delaying new business investment. Still, the effects on Blacks appear to transcend conventional explanations.
In September the official unemployment rate was 5.4 percent. However, Black unemployment stood at 10.3 percent, down from 10.4 percent in August buy still more than twice white unemployment at 4.7 percent. The statistics are even more startling when segmented by gender. Unemployment for Black men stood at 10.1 percent compared to 4.3 percent for white males. Similar disparities existed between females of both races; the rate of unemployment for Black women was 8.9 percent in September as compared to white women at 4.0 percent.
Black youth between the ages of 16 and 19 year-olds, including many high school dropouts and graduates, recorded an unemployment rate of 28.9 percent while joblessness among their white peers stood at 14.7 percent. These numbers are all the more startling when the fact that many people have simply stopped searching for work and their numbers are not factored into the official unemployment rates.
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