{"id":517535,"date":"2010-04-06T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=81420"},"modified":"2010-04-06T06:00:31","modified_gmt":"2010-04-06T10:00:31","slug":"jobless-numbers-show-no-evidence-of-a-post-racial-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/517535","title":{"rendered":"Jobless Numbers Show No Evidence of a Post-Racial America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unemployment.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-81421\" title=\"unemployment\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/unemployment-480x319.jpg\" alt=\"High unemployment among African-Americans, Latinos\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the giddy, post-electoral haze in 2008, many people hoped and  believed that the election of President Obama would herald a new,  \u201cpost-racial\u201d America. But a look at some recent economic statistics  tells a different story.<\/p>\n<p>While <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/empsit.nr0.htm\">overall employment  in March stood at 9.7 percent<\/a>, some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/empsit.t02.htm\">16.5 percent of  African-Americans were unemployed<\/a>. A staggering 41.1 percent of  African-Americans between 16 and 19 years of age are unemployed, based  on the March numbers, while 19 percent of adult African-American men and  12.4 percent of adult African-American women are facing unemployment.  With the exception of the unemployment rate for teenagers, those  seasonally adjusted numbers were up over February statistics, even as  white unemployment stayed the same.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_2754\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2754\" title=\"debt\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/debt-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> The numbers weren&#8217;t much  better among Hispanics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/empsit.t03.htm\">Latinos face a  12.6 percent unemployment rate overall<\/a>, while Latino teenagers face a  non-seasonally adjusted 30.1 unemployment rate and Latino men and women  are unemployed at rates of 12.8 and 12 percent, respectively<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted white unemployment stood at 8.8 percent  (and non-seasonally adjusted unemployment declined from 9.7 to 9.3  percent). While unemployment in the general population &#8212; and the white  population &#8212; seemingly peaked last October, it didn\u2019t peak for  African-Americans or Latinos until January 2010 and has already nudged  back up. Latino women, in fact, continue to see an expansion in their  rates of unemployment.<\/p>\n<p>But the Obama Administration has done  little, so far, to target higher rates of unemployment in communities of  color as a result of the recession &#8212; let alone the existing conditions  that lead to ongoing disproportionately high unemployment rates,  specifically within African-American communities.<\/p>\n<p>The jobs  bill passed by the Senate doesn\u2019t contain even the money for youth  employment programs &#8212; like the ones mentioned approvingly by the  president in 2009 &#8212; passed by the House, and it doesn\u2019t contain  provisions pushed by African-American lawmakers to make sure that at  least 10 percent of the budget for each section of the bill goes to  communities where 20 percent of the population is low-income. It has  been <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/87367-cummings-jobs-bill-wont-help-black-community\">criticized  by African-American lawmakers like Rep. Elijiah Cummings<\/a> (D-Md.), a  member of the Congressional Black Caucus, for not focusing on the  unique problems facing the African-American community and, in  particular, hard-hit urban communities facing chronic unemployment.  Cummings spokesman Paul Kincaid said, &#8220;The congressman and the CBC are  really focused on the need for expanding job training as a way to combat  these issues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for  Economic Policy and Research, agrees with Cummings that the president  hasn&#8217;t gone far enough, saying \u201c[The administration has] been way too  meek on it. One thing in particular they could have pushed employment  programs targeted to areas of high unemployment. They could focus on  areas where unemployment rates are above 20 percent or something, and  get money for job creation to areas like Detroit, which employment is  just falling through the floor.\u201d If the administration focused on  communities disproportionately affected by unemployment, even if it  didn\u2019t specifically target African-American communities, its efforts  would have a disproportional impact on those communities suffering most  from unemployment, including African-Americans, he said.<\/p>\n<div>A <a href=\"http:\/\/jec.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&amp;ContentRecord_id=c659c078-c452-4449-a0a7-112031900642\">report  issued in March by the Joint Economic Committee<\/a> noted more  disturbing trends, including high rates of underemployment in the  African-American community, which takes into account people working part  time when they\u2019d prefer to be working full time and those so  discouraged by the jobless recovery that they haven\u2019t been looking for  work as diligently. The typical period of unemployment, while always  higher for African-Americans, is now at nearly 24 weeks, compared to  just 18.4 weeks for white workers. And the report found that nearly 45  percent of unemployed African-Americans have been so for more than 27  weeks. Despite comments by the JEC in the report that higher rates of  un- and underemployment could be related to a mismatch between skills  and available jobs, which could be addressed through training programs,  the JEC\u2019s statistics show that education doesn\u2019t bring employment  equity: 8.2 percent of African-Americans with college degrees are  unemployed, but only 4.5 percent of college-educated white people are.<\/div>\n<p>Baker  noted that such statistics have, unfortunately, been typical for years.  \u201cAfrican-Americans suffer a disproportionate impact to their employment  at every downturn, in part because they have a disproportionate rate of  unemployment to start with,\u201d he said. Unemployment in the  African-American community was in the double digits prior to the  economic downturn and continued, as it always does, to climb up to  disproportionately high rates; no one expects it to achieve parity with  white unemployment rates as part of the stimulus or jobs bills, let  alone because of the recovery.<\/p>\n<p>When <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegrio.com\/2009\/06\/obama-addresses-african-american-unemployment.php\">asked  in 2009 about the African-American unemployment rate<\/a> &#8212; which  economists expected could hit 20 percent by the end of the year &#8212; and  why he hadn\u2019t yet targeted programs at the African-American community,  Obama said: \u201cWe know that the African-American unemployment rate, the  Latino unemployment rate are consistently higher than the national  average. And so, if the economy as a whole is doing poorly, the  African-American community is going to be doing poorly, and they\u2019re  going to be hit harder. The best thing that I can do for the  African-American community, the Latino community, the Asian community,  whatever community is to get the economy as a whole moving.\u201d The  president then went onto the describe some existing programs that target  urban teenagers with job skills training, and how the administration  might duplicate those programs eventually, in a roundabout way of  answering what the administration might do if African-American  employment rates did not improve. At the time, reports indicated that if  unemployment in the African-American community continued to get worse,  the administration would look at more targeted programs.<\/p>\n<p>The  National Urban League, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nul.org\/content\/state-black-america-executive-summary\">in  a report issued March 24<\/a>, suggested a similar program: $150 million  in grants to cities, states, non-profits and universities based on  local unemployment rates to create three million jobs in the hardest-hit  communities. Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial said, &#8220;The  first thing that needs to be done is direct job creation to put people  to work, because fixing structural problems can&#8217;t happen while so many  people are out of work. What we did in the 30s, what we did in the 70s,  with the government hiring people directly, is a good place to start.  Congressman Miller&#8217;s bill, which would give money to cities to hire  people, with 25 percent allocated to community-based organizations to  help put people to work.&#8221; He also suggested that one way for the  president to resolve the criticisms that funding infrastructure projects  disproportionately puts white people back to work is to invest heavily  in construction training programs in urban areas, where those skills are  often in short supply and unemployment is highest.<\/p>\n<p>Economics  professor and author Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University thinks a jobs  program needs to go much further than that: &#8220;Put in place $80-100  billion to a direct effort to create jobs in urban centers around the  country, with a disproportionate amount of resources targeted at cities  with the highest unemployment. Then you can have a dramatic impact on  unemployment very quickly. It would be more effective than giving tax  credits to small businesses to hire people,&#8221; Watkins said in an  interview. The president, he added, &#8220;doesn&#8217;t have to have a black  agenda, he can simply have a strong urban agenda,&#8221; but he&#8217;s concerned  that, with Larry Summers and Tim Geithner at the helm of economic  policy, the president won&#8217;t hear much about an economic agenda that  addresses poverty issues, let alone economic issues of concern to  African-Americans or other people of color, because, he says, neither  man has any background or apparent intellectual interest in those areas.  &#8220;If people&#8217;s hearts aren&#8217;t in the right place, then their intellects  won&#8217;t be,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Like the Joint Education Committee  report, Morial and Watkins also highlighted the need for significant  investments in job training and adult education over the coming years to  address the larger structural problems in the African-American  community and resolve the apparent mismatch between skills and available  jobs. Morial said, &#8220;People with long term or structural unemployment  generally have high school education or less, and we need a significant,  sustained investment in job training, community-based job training and  adult education programs to even begin to think about changing the  structural problems.&#8221; But at this stage, neither a targeted jobs program  or a significant investment in targeted job training appears to be on  the president&#8217;s agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the giddy, post-electoral haze in 2008, many people hoped and believed that the election of President Obama would herald a new, \u201cpost-racial\u201d America. But a look at some recent economic statistics tells a different story. While overall employment in March stood at 9.7 percent, some 16.5 percent of African-Americans were unemployed. A staggering 41.1 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}