The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest job report shows the overall unemployment rate remains unchanged at 9.7 percent. There was a net gain of 162,000 jobs in March, including 48,000 temporary census workers.
The black unemployment rate rose to 16.5 percent, nearly twice the rate of whites (8.8 percent).
Though the black unemployment rate is higher, Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, says “today’s employment report shows continued signs of gradual labor market healing.”
During an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said:
The economy’s growing now, that’s the first step. But the unemployment rate is still terribly high, and it’s going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. It’s going to take a long time to bring it down just because of the damage caused by the reception.A new briefing paper from the Economic Policy Institute cuts to the chase: For the jobless, there is no recovery in sight:
Yet consistent job growth has yet to arrive and the unemployment rate will probably not peak until the second half of this year. In short, this recovery is currently “jobless” and has been for quite some time. Worse, even when it is no longer technically jobless (that is, when we have positive employment growth), the unemployment rate will likely not fall substantially for a year or even longer.It’s Friday and millions of black folks are still waiting to get paid.
