Black Male Jobless Rate In Dec. 2008: 13.4%

by Dollars and Sense

From Bob Feldman; this repeats some of what we reported a couple of days ago, but it bears repeating...

The "seasonally adjusted" official unemployment rate for Black male workers in the United States over the age of 20 jumped from 12.1% to 13.4% between November and December 2008, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

In addition, the official jobless rate for Black youth between 16 and 19 years old in the United States increased from 32.2% to 33.7%, while the unemployment rate for white youth increased from 18.4% to 18.7%. The official jobless rate for Hispanic or Latino workers in the United States also increased from 8.6% to 9.2% between November and December 2008.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also summarized the December 2008 employment situation in the United States for all U.S. workers in the following way in its January 9, 2009 press release:

Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment
rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent...Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the
month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008. In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors...

In December, the number of unemployed persons increased by 632,000 to 11.1 million...Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points....

The unemployment rates for...whites (6.6 percent) increased in December...

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million. (See table A-8.) The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008....

--b.f.

Labels: Black jobless rate, Bob Feldman, Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment

 

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1/11/2009 01:10:00 PM