Who Suffers the Most from Unemployement?
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According to Chris Isidore (2008), it was in December 2007 that The National Bureau of Economic Research said that the United States has entered into a recession (para. 1). The recession has been said to have ended in June 2009 by the same people, but we have not fully recovered. (Rampell, 2010) “The declaration of the recessions end confirms what many suspected: The 2007-09 recession was not only the longest post-World War II recession, but also the deepest, in terms of both job losses and at least one measure of output declines. (para.6). Everyone has suffered in some way. The recession has affected the people of all different ethnicities, races, sexes, ages, as well as diverseindustries. Some groups were affected more than others,of course How do you truly measure the suffering of those affected? Statistics help us gage how many people are suffering. I have reason to think that young black males are the most affected.
Every newspaper, magazine, talk show and newscast has been covering this current phenomenon. This recession has left numerous people unemployed. Let us define unemployed. Websters Dictionary defines it as not employed, not being used, not invested. (BLS, 2009, Concepts of Employment and Unemployment)The Bureau of Labor Statistics classified unemployed are people who are jobless, looking for jobs, and available for work (para. 1). Then next thing we need to understand is to how figure out who is unemployed. That is a loaded question. They are some many components to this question. It requires a trained personnel from the Current Population Survey to conduct a number of survey questions to get an estimated number of who is employed, unemployed, out of the labor force and what other categories to they fit in. The questions are available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
The current unemployment rate is 9.0% as of January 2011 BLS. After much review I can see that the African American unemployment rate surpasses all the other ethnicities as a whole and in every sub group such as sex and age. According to the 2009 annual averages the African American unemployment rate is 14.0% compared to Whites at 8.5%, Asians 7.3%, and Hispanics who are trailing right behind African Americans at 12.1%. (See attached Graph on page 6). With in the groups of African Americans the highest rate is with men over the age of 16. On another employment table it shows that unemployment of African American between the ages of 16 to 19 is a whopping 46.0%. (see attached Table on page 7 ).
Why is it that African Americans take on the brunt of the burden, particularly young black males? African Americans unemployment rate is higher than others even when education levels are the same. Less of them work in managerial and professional related occupations. (BLS, 2010) “Unemployed African American tend to be jobless for longer periods than other unemployed workers in other groups” (p.3). (Web, 2011 )”In other words as bad as the crisis is for the American people of every nationality and race- and it is terrible- it is at the same time extracting extra pain from the African American (para. 9)
Historically
The graph above is an example of the History of African American unemployment rate. It shows that from 1973 till 2009 the unemployment rates of Blacks to Whites are way higher and at an alarming rate, almost triple.
(Glasgow, 1980)(“Over the past fifteen years, the nations inner cities have witnessed the growth and consolidation of a population of poor and unused Black youth, confined in economic poverty and social decay. A significantly younger population than the poor of previous generations, the young Blacks, some as young as thirteen and fourteen are already earmarked for failure.–they are undereducated, jobless, without salable skills or the social credentials to gain access to mainstream life(Preface)
Glasgow (Glasgow, 1980) claims that most of the decreased unemployment took place between 1959 and 1969 (p5). This is not new information. This trend has been around for numerous years and it will continue on a constant inclination if not analyzed properly with correct measures to remedy the predicament. They are many theories to why there is such a massive problem. Theories include unremitting racism, the criminalization and incarceration of blacks, lack of resources such as adequate education and job training, the broken black family and the perpetual cycle of the impoverishers way of life.
Racism is the basic underling issue. (Mincy, 2006)The very high rates of incarcerations and participation of crime among young black men are well known…So they (employers) may tend a avoid hiring those whom they suspect of having a criminal records, and they most likely suspect young black