Part 2: The demographics of the unemployed:
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: 3.4% (down .3%)
- White: 4.1% (down .2%)
- Hispanic: 5.6% (down .3%)
- Black: 8.1% (up .4%)
Here are the adjusted rates:
- Asians: 6.7%
- White: 8.0%
- Hispanic: 10.9%
- Black: 15.8%
Demographically the news was looking pretty decent with regard to the February improvement until we account for those having the most difficult time in the workforce. Despite decent employment progress for all other demographics, black adults actually experienced a uptick in unemployment. It's disappointing to see that in a month with the best job gains in years - a whole demographic didn't participate in the improvement (and actually fell behind). This illustrates why it's important to dive deeper into these numbers to see what's really going on. And it's clear that a lot of work needs to be done to improvement the labor market, and participation for especially black adults.
In the third part of today's story we'll explore how much money we're making...