African-American men are currently suffering a recession worse than any other group of people. In 2008, more than one of every 10 black men was unemployed. Now in mid-2009, the rate of joblessness for black men is over 16%.
Black men take up the majority of service occupations (store sales associates, janitorial staff, drivers, delivery men) and manufacturing jobs (assemblers, mechanics, welders), two sectors that have been beaten down in the 18-month-old recession.
I found out some gruesome stuff: the black male unemployment rate moves faster and higher than the national unemployment rate; there have been tests proving that employers discriminate between whites and people of color, even if both have criminal backgrounds; and the best year in the last half-century for black unemployment levels was in 2006 where the unemployment rate was 9.7%.
The national unemployment rate now is 9.5%. So, three years ago while more black men had jobs, they were still worse off than the rest of nation is today.
States and cities with large Black populations are cities struggling with keeping people employed due to the economy’s sour condition. The District of Columbia, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas saw high black unemployment insurance participation rates in 2008. Black people in D.C. represented 79.1 of the aggregate claims in the city.
Even now, Detroit and Buffalo, two cities with huge black populations where thousands of black men work in auto and manufacturing industries, have unemployment rates well over 50% because of the loss of manufacturing and industrial bases that employed most of the cities’ residents.
Nothing is coming into those cities to offer employment. If they are, these jobs are very low salary, very low wage.
And there’s a stereotype leading to discrimination, too.
The election of President Barack Obama and his family’s presence in the White House was a nice step forward and something black people got excited about. But that doesn’t change the data: high black male unemployment goes on mute about and is one of the most neglected in the federal government.
Black men have a classic one-dimensional aspect – athletes, entertainers and “the mug shots on the evening news.”
The American Journal of Sociology did a test on employer discrimination, where “secret shopper” job applicants reached out for interviews at various companies. Results found that blacks were less likely to be hired if they had “black-sounding” names — Lakisha or Jamal — or if they had a criminal record.
Credit history and criminal background checks have kept black men from getting jobs. Employers these days check applicants credit histories to see how fiscally responsible they are. The government, the largest employer in the country, is at the top of the list of workplaces that do this.
On a panel of national lobbyists, a woman decried employee credit checks, saying “[Their] discipline and trustworthiness does not always manifest in the credit reports.”
“It’s almost like a catch 22,” she said. “Not being able to get a job to pay our creditors.”
There are organizations and lobbyist out there making a big push for bipartisanship participation in creating a bill that would make the Federal Bureau of Investigation clean up criminal records.
Just like with the credit checks, sometimes the rap sheets do not truly reflect where a person is today as opposed to 20 years ago.
