OldSoul : The Black Labor Force in the Recovery

OldSoul

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The Black Labor Force in the Recovery

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Black Unemployment by State — 2010 Annual Averages

African-Americans or blacks made up 12 percent of the United States labor force in 2010.1 Overall, 18 million blacks were employed or looking for work, representing 62.2 percent of all black people.
In 2010, about half of blacks aged 16 and older had a job and 17.5 percent of those employed worked part-time.2 Blacks are the only racial or ethnic group where women represent a larger share of the employed than do men — more than half (54.3 percent) of employed blacks in 2010 were women, compared to 46.3 percent among employed whites. Employed black women still earn less than employed black men.
More than a quarter of employed black workers aged 25 or older have earned a college degree, a share that exceeds that for Hispanics3, but continues to trail whites. While the share that are college graduates has risen 20 percent in the past decade, the gap in the share of employed blacks and whites who are college graduates has not narrowed and a 10 percentage point gap remains.
Black workers are more likely to be employed in the public sector than are either their white or Hispanic counterparts. In 2010, nearly 1 in 5 employed blacks worked for the government compared to 14.6 percent of whites and 11.0 percent of Hispanics. Conversely, blacks are less likely than Hispanics and nearly as likely as whites to work in the private sector, not including the self-employed.4 Few blacks are self-employed — only 3.8 percent reported being self-employed in 2010 — making them about half as likely to be self-employed as whites (7.4 percent).
Half of black workers employed full time earned $611 or more per week in 2010, 80 percent of that earned by whites. The gap in earnings has been similar throughout the recession and recovery period...
...black youth (aged 16-19) have significantly higher unemployment rates than black adults. The unemployment rate for black youth reached a high of 49.2 percent in September 2010 and as of June 2011 had fallen to 39.9 percent. Not only has the unemployment rate remained high, but a large number of black teens are no longer in the labor force — either working or looking for work. In 2007, black teens participated in the labor force at a rate of 30.3 percent. By 2010, that rate had declined to 25.5 percent. Labor force participation of black men and women aged 20-54 declined by 1.2 percentage points from 78.2 percent in 2007 to 77.0 percent in 2010, while older black workers (aged 55 and older) increased by 1.4 percentage points — 35.3 percent in 2007 to 36.7 percent in 2010.
Some of this decline in labor participation among black teens reflects an increase in the percent of black teens enrolled in school. Among 16-19 year olds, 81.5 percent were enrolled in school in October 2010, compared to 80.7 percent in 2007, the year the recession began.5 The rate of school enrollment was even greater for blacks aged 20-24. In October 2010, 38.7 percent of this cohort was enrolled in school compared to 32.8 percent in October 2007.
One factor that may explain part of why black labor force outcomes lag behind those of their white counterparts is their lower educational attainment. The link between greater education attainment and improved employment outcomes remains strong, as is true for all racial and ethnic groups. However, even when comparisons are made between those with similar educational backgrounds racial disparities remain.

Unemployment Rate for Blacks and Whites aged 25 and older, by Educational Attainment, 2010 Annual Average
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