![]() “You get bigger changes in African American unemployment rate when the labor market gets tighter, because they are the ones left who are still looking for work.” Yet, the disparity between unemployment rates remain: The black unemployment rate is still almost double the white unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.Īs they looked more closely at today’s data, however, economists noted that one number was a distinct downer. As we always say here, never put too much stock into one month’s numbers.īut, Wilson noted that we’ve seen bigger decreases in black unemployment in recent years thanks to “the economy getting better as a whole.” When the unemployment rate decreases 1 percentage point nationally, it usually translates to about a 2 percentage point drop in black unemployment, she explained. She cautioned that it’s hard to tell how much is real or sustainable employment growth in one month. ![]() ![]() I spoke to economist Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, about the decline in black unemployment. Blacks, who typically suffer higher rates of unemployment than other racial groups, saw the black unemployment rate decline in December to 8.3 percent, down 1.1 percent point from November and down nearly 2 percent from last year. The drop in the unemployment rate for blacks was significant. While short of the record 3.1 million created in 2014, it seems clear that the economy is on the right track with regard to job creation, even if the recovery is slowing its pace from the summer, according to GDP data. And as a result, payroll growth increased to 2.7 million in the year 2015. That’s 50,000 jobs not previously reported. In fact, October and November’s strong jobs numbers were revised upwards 9,000 jobs and 41,000 jobs respectively. And yabba dabba doo!Īnd revisions add another 50k for past months. December’s jobs report was nothing short of stellar.īy crikey, by jingo. economy added 292,000 jobs in December, and unemployment remained unchanged at 5.0 percent.
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