The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently noted that the national unemployment rate for the month of June had dipped to 6.3%, the lowest rate since September 2008. But the unemployment rate for African Americans as a demographic is much higher.
According to statistics from the Department of Labor, that non-seasonally adjusted rate now stands at 11.1%, the highest of any demographic group. For whites, that rate is 5.5% and for Asians that rate is 5.1%. The National Urban League’s “One Nation Underemployed: Jobs Rebuild America,” noted that the underemployment rate for African American workers was 20.5%.
The African American employment-population ratio for June is at 54.8%, which means when you factor in the 12 million-plus Americans who remain out of work, nearly half the black population is still looking for jobs.
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But as bad as it is, some states are worse than others when it comes to trying to eke out a living without a weekly paycheck. BlackEnterprise.com pulled figures from The Bureau of Labor Statistics Geographic Profile Service to find the rate of unemployed blacks for the year 2013, the last time the numbers were calculated.
We also pulled the 10 worst states to live according to the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch. Check them out on the following page …