Blacks have always faced higher unemployment rates than whites, but the Great Recession has exacerbated that disparity across demographic lines, including gender, age and education.
A new report from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee looks deep into the Labor Department data and highlights the disparity. Here are some key takeaways:
- The current jobless rate for blacks was 15.8% in February, compared to an overall rate of 9.7%. The broader unemployment rate — the U-6 rate that includes workers who are underemployed and discouraged — shows an even bigger gap. The U-6 rate for whites in February (not seasonally adjusted) was 17.9%, for blacks it was 24.9%.
- College-educated workers with an unemployment rate of just 5% have fared better in this recession than most. But white college graduates face a 4.5% unemployment rate, while 8.2% of black college graduates are unemployed.
- Black men have been hit harder than women, but female heads of household, who bear the sole financial responsibility for their families, face a 15% unemployment rate, compared to 11.6% for all women heads of household.
- Young blacks have the highest unemployment rate of any demographic group. More than 2 out of 5 African American teenagers are unemployed, compared to an overall teen unemployment rate of slightly over 25%.
- Long-term unemployment is an issue for the entire work force, but the problem is particularly pronounced among blacks. Although black workers make up only 11.5% of the labor force, they account for more than 20% of the long-term unemployed, and make up 22% of workers who have been unemployed for over a year. The median duration of unemployment for black workers has risen from less than 3 months before the recession began to almost six months.
See an interactive graphic on the unemployed, by race and gender