No growth in Black Employment this Decade

One of the saddest parts of the recession is that it has wiped out any growth in Black Employment this decade. In January 1999 there were approximately 14,835,000 Blacks working in the US. As of December 2009, there were 14,759,000 at net loss of -76,000 workers. The percent drop was 1/2 of 1 percent(-0.51%). By contrast, White employment increased by 2.7% and Hispanic employment by 47% during the same 10 years. Yeah, 47%!! Overall employment numbers for the entire country increased by about 5%.

So, even as the Black US population continued to grow the number of Blacks classified as not in the labor force surged 27% and the number of workers was fixed. The Black population of the US increased by 15% over the decade.

When I computed the 47% increase for Hispanics I was astounded. I have long thought that Hispanics and Blacks were competing for the same jobs and keep wages down, but I did not realize how bad it really was. Definitely got to write some pieces on that one.



Check the sad green line.