The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the unemployment rate edged down to 9.5 percent in June, from 9.7 percent.
The black unemployment rate is 15.4 percent, down from 15.5 percent. The black male jobless rate edged up to 17.1 percent, from 17.0 percent.
The unemployment rates don’t tell the whole story of the jobless crisis. As Christina Romer, the Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, notes:
The drop in the unemployment rate was driven in large part by a substantial decline in the labor force, which we expect to be reversed as employment prospects continue to improve.
Meanwhile, roughly 2.6 million workers are “marginally attached” to the labor force or discouraged. They have given up on looking for a job so they are not counted as unemployed.
Another 6.8 million workers have been unemployed for six months or longer.
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, “Uneven pain—Unemployment by metropolitan area and race,” details the disparate impact of the jobless recovery in the 50 largest metropolitan areas. Among the key findings:- Only one metro area had a white unemployment rate above 11.3% (Detroit, 13.8%). Nine metro areas had a Hispanic unemployment rate above 11.3%, and 14 had a black unemployment rate above that level.
- No metropolitan area had a black unemployment rate below 7.3%, and only two areas had Hispanic unemployment rates below 7.3%. Nearly half of the areas—24—had white unemployment rates below that level.
- In all but two metropolitan areas, the white unemployment rate was lower than the overall rate. For the 50 largest metropolitan areas, the average white unemployment rate is 0.8 times the overall rate.
- The black-white unemployment ratio was highest in Minneapolis and Memphis. In these metropolitan areas, the black unemployment rate was three times the white rate.
- In many instances, disparities are visible in unemployment rates even when we compare racial subgroups with the same level of education. We need to ensure that nonwhites have equal employment opportunities in the labor market.