l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 20岁以上美国黑人男性就业率只有56.9%，是1972年有历史记录以来的最低点
Employment rate for black men at record low
By Zachary Roth
If the election of America's first African-American president was expected
to give blacks an economic boost, it hasn't emerged yet. Indeed, the
percentage of African-American men with a job has dropped to its lowest
level since records began in 1972, according to the government's monthly
jobs report released last week.
Even as the economy added a better-than-expected 244,000 jobs, the
percentage of black males over 20 who are currently employed dropped
slightly to 56.9, the Labor Department's April report shows. For whites, the
equivalent figure is 68.1 percent.
Before this recession, the percentage of black adult men with a job had
never dropped below 60 percent, according to Labor Department statistics.
And among blacks, it's not just men who are suffering. Just 51.5 percent of
African-Americans across the board--compared to 59.5 percent of whites--have
a job, the numbers show. That's the lowest level for blacks since 1984.
(That group includes 16- to 19-year-olds, who are employed at a far lower
rate than their elders.)
These employment rates are calculated differently from the top-line
unemployment rate, which includes only those actively looking for work, and
inched back up last month to 9 percent.
Heather Boushey, an economist with the liberal Center for American Progress,
told The Lookout it's not just African-Americans who have been hit
particularly hard. It's also other traditionally struggling groups, such as
ex-offenders and those without a college degree.
"Anyone who would be last on an employer's list to get a job is really in
bad shape" in the current downturn, Boushey said.
And employers' hiring practices may be making the problem worse. As we've
reported, online job listings telling the unemployed not to apply have
proliferated in recent years. The federal government is currently probing
whether such listings illegally discriminate against African Americans, who
are disproportionately likely to be among the jobless.
Nonetheless, much of the media has focused on the travails of educated white
men--still a comparatively flourishing group--during the downturn.
(Faye McWilliams Pearson, a volunteer at Miami's Pass-It-On Ministries,
left, works with Douglas Willock, center and Stephen Smith, both unemployed,
giving them information about job fairs and a box of food that will last a
week: J Pat Carter/AP) | w****y
发帖数: 76 | 2 they really deserve this |
|
