Posted on 01/09/2009 3:52:24 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
John Sowell left his job as a truck driver in Louisville, Ky., last fall to move to Charlotte. He has family here, he said, and he'd heard it was a booming city with plenty of jobs.
Now, three months and about 100 applications later, Sowell is still searching.
“It's the grace of God if you get hired,” said Sowell, 43, who's been working at a temp agency. “It's hard. I don't know what to do now. I just pray a lot.”
Though he has more than a decade of experience, he's having a hard time finding work – just like many other black men searching for jobs in one of the toughest economies in years.
Economists expect the Labor Department to reveal more bad news when it unveils December's unemployment figures today. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expect the national unemployment rate to jump from 6.7percent in November to 7percent in December, which would be the highest level in 15 years.
The recession has squeezed virtually all sectors and demographic groups. But black men, who have always faced higher unemployment rates than the national average, are taking a harder hit, data show.
In the last year, unemployment among black males increased at twice the rate of most other groups. Experts blame a range of factors, from education to discrimination – and say it's a dangerous trend that could lead to jumps in unemployment, poverty and crime.
“Basically, it's always bad for blacks,” said Algernon Austin, director of the race, ethnicity and the economy program at the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. “During recessionary periods, it really goes from bad to worse.”
The unemployment rate for black men was 11.9percent in November, almost twice that of white men, and up 4percentage points from a year earlier.
For black women, the November rate climbed 2percentage points from November 2007; for white men and women, 1.9, and for Hispanic men and women, 2.9.
One factor in the spike could be discrimination, Austin said, citing a recent study by two Princeton professors that showed white men with criminal records were as likely to be hired as black men without criminal records.
The job market is tougher for blacks with criminal records – and rising incarceration rates in recent decades might be a factor in a faster-rising unemployment rate, he said.
Education is another factor, said Mike Walden, an economist at N.C. State University, who's seen similar trends among black men in previous downturns.
In tough economic times, businesses are more willing to cut lower-level workers before higher-level employees, he said.
According to a 2007 study by the U.S. Census Bureau, 81percent of blacks completed at least high school, compared with 86percent overall. People with lower levels of education are more likely to have those lower-paying jobs, the study found.
Nationally, disproportionate numbers of black men hold jobs in manufacturing or construction, and those positions have been among the first cut in this recession, particularly in the Carolinas, said Steve Rondone, an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Among Charlotte's five JobLink centers, which help unemployed people find work, the number of black men served increased by 1,700 from 2007 to 2008, said Deborah Gibson, executive director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Workforce Development Board.
The centers served just 650 more white men. For 2007 and 2008, 68percent of the men served at the centers were black, Gibson said, even though blacks make up just 29percent of Mecklenburg's population.
Part of the reason for the increase could be the ripple effect of the economy: As workers at all levels lose their jobs, they're cutting back on spending, leaving restaurant and hospitality workers out of a job, too, she said. Those sectors also employ relatively high percentages of African Americans.
“Unemployment always disproportionately affects the African American community,” said Antwon Keith, manager of the Employment Security Commission's office off Albemarle Road.
The office was crowded Tuesday, with a line that looped around the waiting room and rows of people leafing through paperwork or clicking through computer job databases. Many of the job-seekers were black men with similar stories.
Greg Robbins of east Charlotte has been looking for a trucking or warehouse job since last year, when the Rock Hill company he worked for went out of business, he said.
Robbins, 52, served in the Navy, worked for 13 years as a police officer in Charlotte, managed warehouses and has a five-year trucking background. Even with his experience, jobs have been scarce, in part because high gas prices forced many smaller trucking companies to close this year, he said.
But Robbins is optimistic – in the past few days, more available trucking jobs have popped up online, he said.
“I've set (a goal) for myself that by next week, I'll have a job,” he said.
Davie Mobley of west Charlotte has been looking for a job for four months and is getting desperate, he said.
“It's really rough,” said Mobley, 48, who was laid off after 16 years with a company that installs office cubicles. “Ain't nobody hiring. The economy is all messed up.”
That could have dire consequences, said Austin, the Economic Policy Institute director.
Among those: a rising poverty rate, lower levels of education and climbing crime rates, which are all tied to the economy, Austin said.
He said President-elect Obama's plans for a recovery and job-creation package would help; as long as some of those jobs reach the black male population. It's also important to encourage education to help put an end to disproportionate unemployment rates, he said.
For job-seekers Tuesday, the goals were more modest, from affording a place to live to buying groceries.
“For right now, I can't expect too much,” said Sowell, the Louisiana transplant. “I can't cry about nothing. All I can do is stick to it.”
What about women and children?
The ridiculous hyperbole is going from "bad to worse".
Get rid of the Mexicans, and Americans of every race and disposition may stand a chance of landing a job.
Well...I know of one that has a job that he shouldn’t.
There are opportunities. What’s the problem with black men?
(Kirsten Valle got a job!)
sorry, but racism always trumps women and children when the MSM is posting pretty colorized chart/graphs.
From now on, to be included in any of these reports will be a second chart trending how many black coaches are in college and pro football via ESPN who now dedicates the majority of its programming to ramming this down our throats.
Interesting. I see from your chart that there is discrimination against white men as well.
We’re supposed to feel sorry for someone who quit his job?
Oh, I see. I’ll try to remember.
Basically, if Algernon reported that black men didn't have it any worse than anyone else these days, he'd be out of job himself.
I don't see how the Too Good to Work for a Living crowd is affected by a downturn in jobs.
LLS
OK How about some statistics- White men with criminal records: < 10%; black men with criminal records: almost 50%
Another statistics; How many 'black' movies feature themes of stealing some money, getting away with it, and getting a white girl. (hint- almost all of them)
The money quote and what they wanted to say anyway.
Somehow, though, "experts" seem not to have noticed the millions of illegal immigrants willing to work dirt-cheap for cash under the table, pricing black American males out of the market for less-skilled and unskilled labor.
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