Since January 2001, the economy has lost a staggering 2.5 million jobs, sending the unemployment rate in June to 6.4 percent, a nine-year high. The politically potent figure is calculated each month through a household survey, separate from the job figures, and economists generally expect it to drop to 6.3 percent when results are released Friday.
African-Americans like Richardson have been particularly hard-hit by the downturn in employment — an unfortunate but unsurprising result of an economy in which many minorities are marginalized, analysts said. Among whites, the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while among blacks the rate is more than double, at 11.8 percent.
"African-Americans historically take a bigger hit during recessions than whites do," said Harry Holzer, professor of public policy at Georgetown University.
A survey released this week indicates that unemployment tends to hit African-Americans harder, too. According to the survey of 413 unemployed adults, 63 percent of African-Americans said they were "very concerned" they may have to take a job that pays less than their old job, while only 46 percent of whites shared that concern. And 80 percent of unemployed African-Americans said they were having troubles paying their bills, compared with 60 percent of unemployed whites, according to the Hart Research survey.
The survey results reflect the fact that blacks fear they are losing the enormous gains in employment and wages they achieved during the booming years of the 1990s, said Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project, which commissioned the survey. "Part of what this reflects is the concern that they are going to lose the ground that they gained in the 1990s," he said. "Now they are back to where they started."
Richardson, who is in her early 50s and last worked as a legal secretary, draws little connection between her race and her employment status. "It's hurting everybody — not just the African-American. The ones that are blessed with a job — they need to hold onto it dearly. I haven't talked with too many friends who know of (available) jobs."
| MSNBC's Martin Wolk finds "Jobless losing faith in economy: African Americans among the hardest hit"
Also see: Peter D. Hart Research Associates' "Unemployed in America: A Look at Unemployed African Americans" (part of a complete survey) for the National Employment Law Project in PDF format
posted in articles on August 1, 2003 2:12 AM | t (0)
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