Last Friday the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment numbers for the month of July and the news isn’t good for African-Americans.
According to the Bureau the unemployment rate for black people rose 0.3 percent from June to July of this year. Compared to July of last year the jobless rate for African-Americans is up almost a full percentage point from 15.7 percent last year to 16.8 percent this year.
The recession has adversely affected the black community as African-Americans have yet to recover from the recent economic downturn. With job creation numbers coming in at an anemic pace many unemployed blacks are having a hard time finding steady employment.
A recently released study by the Florida International University Center for Labor Research and Studies states that the majority of new jobs created in the state of Florida has been in low-wage industries.
The report suggests that since January of 2010 the state of Florida has gained over 85,000 thousand jobs. Almost 20,000 of those jobs have come from the Accommodation and Food Services industry, which consists of jobs in the hotel and lodging sector. The average annual wage for workers in this industry is $18,842.
But why is the unemployment rate for black people so much higher than the national average of 9.1 percent?
Chonie Sharper, CEO of Sharper Wealth Management, says that the issue may be academic and not strictly economic.
“In order to get a job, you must acquire an education and/or possess marketable skills. In our communities, we tend to lack both,” said Sharper. “Without education and/or marketable skills, it is difficult to find a job even in times of economic expansion or peaks,” she continued.
Sharper has a point. According to a report released by the National Center for Education Statistics the drop-out rate for African-Americans in 2007-08 was a healthy 6.7 percent compared to 2.8 percent for white students.
She also states that young black Americans should look toward alternative career paths for future job opportunities.
“Teenagers should look into unconventional career paths in fields such as Science, Math & Technology. There are a significant amount of high paying jobs in these fields that companies are unable to fulfill because of a major lack of students and other professionals with an education in these fields so these jobs get outsourced to other countries that do focus on these subjects in school,” says Sharper.
With regard to what the black community can do to recover from the recession, Sharper believes that being financially prudent and learning how to properly manage money will pay off in the long run.
To find more information regarding the recently released employment numbers please visit the United States Department of Labor.
[…] Chonie Sharper, CEO of Sharper Wealth Management, says that the issue may be academic and not strictly economic. […]
One of the many reason Florida employment has gotten poor is due to large number of northerners deciding to move down to Florida causing jobs to be way less for Floridian white or black.