Samantha Robinson
Daily Egyptian
The National Urban League released its annual report on the state of black America last week, and one of the areas with alarming statistics was in the job market. The results show that blacks are losing their jobs twice as fast as whites.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average for June 2002 was 5.9 percent. When broken down, the national average for whites was 5.2, and for blacks it was 10.7.
The study conducted by the NUL breaks down the numbers and tries to get an understanding of why the national average is so high for African-Americans. One of the reasons for the high numbers is because of the recent layoffs during the past year.
Last year at this time, the unemployment rate for blacks was 8.7 percent, a high increase for only one year. For whites, the rate was 4.1.
Why the unemployment rate is so high and why it is at a rate that seems to be steadily climbing are questions researchers are asking.
In a release on the NUL website, NUL president Hugh Price said one of the reasons for the high rate is that some people may be unemployable because their skill levels are not conducive to holding a steady job.
In their study, it was found that many blacks were being moved into low-intensity training that only equipped them for entry-level positions.
The numbers nationally are alarmingly high to many, but when broken down according to state and even county, the numbers are still high.
The unemployment rate for Illinois is 6.3 percent, up from the average of 5.3 last year. Jackson County's unemployment rate for June was 4.2, as compared to 3.6 last year.
Specific numbers for Carbondale based on race are unable to be obtained because of limited funding, but the state is able to analyze the numbers by county.
Mitch Daniels, the local labor market manager with the Illinois Department of Employment Security, said the state numbers are high but have dropped enough to be noticeable.
"The numbers are higher from May, but compared to last June are about the same," Daniels said. "Numbers going up in June are normal."
Higher numbers in June are mainly attributed to school being out. Within the Southern Illinois area, school staffs are out of work until August, so they are included in the unemployment statistics.
The rate for Jackson County is retrieved once a year and shows the significant difference between whites and blacks. The rate for whites last year was 3.2 percent, while blacks had an unemployment rate of 7.4.
From last year's rates and the percentages from the first two quarters of this year, unemployment rates are projected to be the same and show the same gap between blacks and whites, if not a larger one.
Steve Hipple, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said there are several reasons the average is higher for blacks than whites and has always been at least double since data has been collected beginning in 1972.
Hipple said one of the main reasons for the large gap was discrimination in the workplace.
"There are many reasons the numbers vary so much, but the main reason seems to always be because of discrimination on many levels," Hipple said.
Other reasons contributing to the rate difference are that blacks have lower levels of schooling on an average. The age ratio for blacks in the labor market is younger than whites, averaging between 16 to 19 years old. It was also noted that blacks are normally employed in seasonal occupations, and they are more likely to be concentrated in urban areas with a minimum number of jobs available.
Carbondale's unemployment rate for June was 4.2 percent, up from 3.4 percent from the last year.
When looking at the numbers for Carbondale, the unemployment rate is at the same level as Jackson County with 521 people out of work out of a labor force of 12,553. Those numbers include all SIUC students as well.
Price noted that the Labor Department must work to prevent discrimination in access to federally funded job training and ensure that African-Americans have access to high quality training.
Reporter Samantha Robinson can be reached at
srobinson@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
