Black Unemployment Increased Slightly in November

The November jobs report from the Labor Department showed that the economy is continuing to grow but at a slow pace. The unemployment rate for Blacks was 15.5 percent, slightly higher than October’s rate of 15.1 percent. The national unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent, its lowest in more than two years.

Georgia Tech economist Thomas Boston had predicted that there would be little or no change and even though the October rate seemed like good news at the time because it reflected a decline of a full percentage point, he explained, the September rate was “strangely off.”

The private sector added 140,000 jobs in November. However, new applications for unemployment insurance climbed to 402,000 during the week ending Nov. 26, which is a sign that more people are seeking to re-enter the job market.

However swiftly or slowly the economy grows, Boston laments, it will be a very long time before there is any significant decline in the African-American unemployment rate.

“As more people come back into the labor market, there’s more competition and, generally speaking, Blacks are the last to be hired, which will keep their unemployment rate where it is and maybe even increase it a bit,” Boston said.

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(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)