Part 2: The demographics of the unemployed for March
Bottom Line: The demos of the unemployed tell a much more instructive story about what's really going on in our labor market. As I do monthly, here are the government reported unemployment rates and my adjusted rate based on demographics:
Asians: 2.9% (down .1%)
White: 3.7% (up .2%)
Hispanic: 4.9% (down .1%)
Black: 6.9% (down .8%)
Here are the adjusted rates once you factor in the long-term unemployed, underemployed and marginally attached workers:
Asians: 5.8%
White: 7.4%
Hispanic: 9.8%
Black: 13.8%
The biggest story this month demographically, was that after hitting the lowest level of black unemployment on record in December but seeing unemployment increase in January with many seasonal jobs being lost - there was a huge (ten percent) decline in black unemployment February. It's encouraging as it shows that many who lost seasonal jobs have been able to find employment that's potentially better than the seasonal jobs they had previously.
There's still a lot of room for improvement in many majority minority communities but the most recent report brought lots of good news as every minority group saw lower unemployment. In the third part of today's employment story we'll explore how much more money we're making...