A just released Report entitled, “Does Florida’s Labor Markets Create Opportunities For All?”, by the Florida International University–Center for Labor Research & Studies, paints a damning picture of employment and wages between African American and Hispanic workers and White workers.
The Reports states convincingly that, while it is evident African Americans and Hispanics have experienced recession level unemployment for decades, the current recession has brought even more dramatic increases for minority workers, disproportionately so, when compared to White workers.
According to the Report, unemployment rate for African Americans in the second quarter of 2009 was 8.4 percentage points higher than before the recession in the last quarter of 2007, compared with 5.9 percent higher for Hispanics and 5.1 percentage points higher for White workers.
Looking forward into the second quarter of 2010, the Report projects an even darker picture with an unemployment rate for African Americans rising to 16.9 percent compared to 13.4 percent for Hispanics and 10.4 percentage for Whites.
Not only is unemployment disproportionately higher among African Americans and Hispanics when compared to White workers, but the Report highlights another important troubling trend, namely, underemployment, one measure of financial security. Here too, there are even greater disparities between minority and White workers.
The underemployment rate includes the unemployed and also those who have part-time jobs or are getting less hours than they would like, but are unable to find full time work. And as the Report points out, this is especially problematic for hourly and low-wage service sector workers, many of whom in Florida are African Americans and Hispanics.
The Reports states that, in 2008, African Americans were underemployed at a rate of 15.1 percent and Hispanics at 14.6 percent, rates approximately 5 percentage points higher than that for White workers, 10.3%.
African American and Hispanic workers in Florida fair no better on the wage front; in fact, things get worse.
The Reports poignantly states that, wages for White workers have grown faster than for African Americans and Hispanics, with the resulting gap between African American and Hispanics and White median wages actually increasing since 1979.
In 1979, African Americans earned 81.1 percent of what White workers earned, but only 78.6 percent in 2008. The gap between Hispanic and White wages also has gotten larger, with Hispanic wages going from 85 percent of White wages in 1979 down to 82 percent in 2008.
These revealing and not-so-surprising trends should leave politicians and decision makers in Florida very worried.
It is evident that these inequalities are not going to disappear without concerted efforts to bring more minority workers into higher paying and high quality jobs.
The Report concludes that, Florida will have to pay special attention to workforce needs of African Americans and Hispanic workers in order to build a fair and just society for all.
But, is anyone listening?
