In February the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the unemployment rate for African-Americans at a whopping 16.2 down from Januarys 17.3%. The jobless rate for whites sits around 9.7%. So why is there such a huge difference between the two races? Thats not an easy question to answer.

History Of Unemployment

Since it started keeping track of unemployment numbers in 1948 the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported only two other years, 1982 and 1983, where the unemployment rate exceeded 9% as the national average. The BLS did not start included African-Americans in the unemployment rate until 1972. Even from the very beginning African-Americans reported a higher than average unemployment rate peaking at 19.5% in 1983 and dropping as low as 7.6% in 2000.

According to a 2003 employment population study  only 51.8% of African-American men in New York had jobs compared to 75..7% of white males. Unfortunately, in times of financial hardship the government does not have a good track record of supporting legislation that would boost the employment rate of African-Americans.

New Era Or More Of The Same

Since the historical election of President Obama many African-American community leaders have criticized his lack of attention to the Black community. Specifically, the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also know as the Stimulus Package, which cited no details of filtering some of the funds to African-American communities suffering unemployment rates twice the national average.

The disbursement has been left to state and city leaders who have fought over where to spend the money. Since most of the money has been filtered into infrastructure projects to create jobs and the majority of unions consist of mostly whites, the money is not getting to the African-American communities where it is needed most. With the reduction in social services in many urban co0mmunities where African-American populations are, the outlook is not good for many in these communities. To add insult to injury, most states are facing an educational funding crisis and are forced to reduce staff and close schools mostly in the urban areas.