Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent. Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008. The unemployment rate for black men was 11.9 percent , almost twice that of white men, and up 4percentage points from a year earlier.
Within the last two years the unemployment rate has skyrocketed wreaking havoc on all racial demographics in the U.S. However, black men have been hardest hit by the recent economic down turn. Washington has released half of the billion(s) dollar bail out funds …. the money has yet to reach the black man on Martin Luther Dr. I’ve personally watch a black man look for a job for 9 months with barely any luck at all. He’d get a job as a temp and would be laid off two weeks later. With each passing week his self confidence and esteem seemed to slowly dissipate. Add in the fact that this man served time for a federal crime 8 years ago and it seems almost impossible for him to find work. In an effort to seek employment this man began to apply for jobs at fast food restaurants, when these places did not return his call… he felt into a deep depression. Last week I was listening to News and Notes on NPR and a caller who happened to be a black man from California was telling his story about the struggle with finding employment. This caller was a veteran and was laid off 6 months prior. When I listened to him tell his story I felt the hurt in his voice. While I understand we are in an economic recession, I must ask why are black men being hit harder than the rest of country?
Algernon Austin, director of the race, ethnicity and the economy program at the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute states, “during recessionary periods, it really goes from bad to worse.”One factor in the spike could be discrimination, 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. 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
Issues such as the mass incarceration of black males, the failure of public schools to educate black males, the high unemployment rate among black male workers, the disproportionate number of black males who are homeless, a juvenile-justice system that houses black male youths for prisons, voter disenfranchisement and the alarming homicide rate of black males are just a few of the realities that negatively impact the social and economic status of black males in this country.
Unfortunately, black males are neither influential in the political landscape nor collectively able to employ lobbyists to put those issues before the candidates. Consequently, issues affecting black males are being ignored.
There are lots of reasons why men choose not to work. Some are in school, others are ill, and some may have taken early retirement. But the gap between the number of Black men without work and White men without work is astounding. What would happen if half of all White men did not have jobs? Can you imagine, from a policy perspective, how people would respond and what would happen? Would there be a revolution? A refocusing of national priorities? A massive jobs creation program? If this would happen in response to high White joblessness, why doesn't it happen in response to high levels of Black joblessness?
If you know a black man that is looking for employment, be of assistance to him. Let him know of any jobs that may be hiring. Being unemployed for long periods of time has negative psychological effects on people. Looking for jobs in the paper and the internet can be fruitless at times. We must help one another if we as a people are going to move past this. We can’t wait for Obama and the government to come to our rescue all the time. Sometimes waiting the government comes too late…….remember Katrina? In times such as this we can’t be so selfish that we don’t help our neighbors stay afloat.
2 comments:
What issues have black men ignored themselves as they relate to them?
It’s time for black men to step up to the plate and become their own lobbyist, they don't need anyone to speak for them, they are individuals so they have to start representing themselves.
They have to start taking full responsibility for their own lives, women have done so and there is no real excuse for them not doing so anymore.
You gave three reasons why black men are not working but you left out a very important reason and that is many men have chosen not to work or actively seek employment.
In order to solve the problems of our community, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves until it hurts. Only then can we have the communities in which we desire or the communities we had in the past.
The problems we now have in our communities are ones that we have created, we can not blame anyone but ourselves. We ignored them and accepted them as our way of life and that of our destiny when we should have never replaced success with mediocrity and failure.
I commend any man after being released from a penal institute who has attempted to find employment and this individual should be just as determined and relentless in his search by never giving up in defeat.
The main thing what I believe that hurts and destroys our people is the mentality of that of a victim. That ideology should be erased from the mentality of our people and replaced with the mentality of that of a victor.
We need to stop letting the past own us because there is no future when you keep looking to the past for answers.
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