June 2009 Unemployment rate increases slightly, more jobs lost, Black unemployment 14.7%
Categories: African-American, Economy, Featured
Written By: Shawn Williams
There was little change in unemployment for the month of June, which went up to 9.5% from 9.4% in May. But 467,000 more jobs were lost during this period, up from 322,000 in May. In all, there are now 14.7 million unemployed Americans, an increase of 7.2 million since the start of the recession (Dec. 2007).
The unemployment rate for African-Americans was 14.7% last month compared to 12.2% for Hispanics and 8.7% for whites. The African-American unemployment rate is down for the second straight month after reaching 15% in April. Unemployment for Black men is at 16.4%, down from a high of 17.2% in April.
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June
| 2009 | 7.6 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.9 | 9.4 | 9.5 |
|---|
This does not include 2.2 million people who were marginally attached to the labor force last month. And of that number 793,000 are considered “discouraged workers”, because they are not currently looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available. The other 1.4 million had not searched for work in the previous 4 weeks.
Could Black men be the first to start steering out of the recession?
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
There is a silver lining of sorts here. The job losses this month may be worse than in May, but at the very least they’re better than they were in *shudders* April.
Sources:
http://www.marketnewsvideo.com/?id=200907Recession070209&mv=1
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
July 4th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I’m happy to see some expansion in my area which will bring and has brought some jobs to the neighborhood. I heard on NBC the percentage had gone down slightly, maybe they spoke too soon.
July 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
There are two reasons why unemployment rates go down. One is because more people find employment. Two is because people stop looking for work (according to the technical definition of unemployment you are unemployed if you are BOTH not working AND looking for work).
Given the job market in places like Detroit, which one do you think is the more likely cause here?