Jobs Crisis Hits People of Color Hard
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While it is good news that the national unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January, it is important that we look deeper into the statistics to find the real story of this recession.
There is a depression in communities of color. The unemployment rate for African Americans overall is 15.7 percent, double the rate for whites. One in six African American men over age 20 (16.5 percent) is jobless as are 12.9 percent of African American women. The unemployment rate for Hispanics, at 11.9 percent, is nearly three points above the national average.
The job situation for our African American teenagers is dire. Nearly half—45.4 percent—are without jobs. That’s higher than the jobless rate at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
It is past time for Congress to put job creation at the top of its agenda. America’s communities of color cannot wait for jobs. The strides made by African American workers in the 1990s are being wiped out in this current job crisis, and millions of people of color are no longer making middle-class incomes. As unemployment has grown, local tax bases have shrunk, eroding education and destroying public jobs, public services and public safety—and the communities they serve.
Saving and creating jobs alone won’t solve the ingrained economic problems of African Americans and Hispanics in devastated communities. But it’s the start we need—right now—as we continue rebuilding an economy that works for our streets, not just Wall Street.
Nearly One-Third of Black High School Grads Can’t Find a Job
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In this recession, a high school diploma or even a college degree is no guarantee that you will have a job or a decent income. But for African Americans, the situation is worse than for any other group.
In fact, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows nearly one-third of young African American high school graduates are unemployed.
African Americans face a “considerable disadvantage” in finding jobs compared with their white, Hispanic and Asian counterparts, the report says.
Arlene Holt Baker: Without Jobs, Civil Rights an Empty Promise
Without good jobs, the gains of the civil rights movement are empty: Just as Martin Luther King Jr. fought to secure basic rights for all Americans, we must now fight for economic justice, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said.
Speaking this morning at the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast in Atlanta, Holt Baker said:
The freedom to sit at a lunch counter or in the Oval Office was won for us.
Now it is our time to win for the next generation the economic strength to take advantage of those freedoms. Today more than ever, we understand that without jobs, civil rights is an empty promise. And without good jobs, there is no real freedom.
The annual prayer breakfast is sponsored by the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council.
Create New Jobs Now to Save African American Communities
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The job crisis has hurt everyone. But for African American communities, which were suffering before the crisis hit, it has been a disaster. Unless the nation takes immediate steps to create jobs now, the damage will become more entrenched and we will all pay the price.
Unemployment among African Americans is more than 16 percent, and that’s not counting those who can find only part-time jobs or who have just given up looking for work altogether. African Americans also stay unemployed longer.
The strides made by African American workers in the 1990s are being wiped out in this current job crisis, and millions of people of color are no longer making middle-class incomes. As unemployment has grown, local tax bases have shrunk, eroding education and destroying public jobs, public services and public safety.
