Unemployment for African Americans is the highest it has been in 27 years. According to CNN Money, black unemployment rose to levels of 16.7 percent in August. That’s the highest it’s been since 1984, the Labor Department reported.
CNN said the numbers reflect racial inequality in the job market, as unemployment for whites fell slightly to eight percent.
“This month’s numbers continue to bear out that longstanding pattern that minorities have a much more challenging time getting jobs,” said Bill Rodgers of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.
Black unemployment has been about twice that of whites since the government started tracking numbers in 1972, the news agency said. Economists blame factors such as a younger black workforce, a lower number of blacks with college degrees and the fact that blacks live in the areas of the country that were harder hit by the recession.
But even excluding those factors, blacks still face a higher joblessness rate, the Labor Department said.
“Even when you compare black and white workers, same age range, same education, you still see pretty significant gaps in unemployment rates,” said Algernon Austin of the Economic Policy Institute. “So I do think the fact of racial discrimination in the labor market continues to play a role.”
Although 155,000 blacks got jobs in August, the unemployment rate for the demographic fell because the job market couldn’t keep up with growing demand.
