Black And Hispanic Unemployment In New York Sharply Higher Than For Whites - 07/16/09

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on July 15, 2009 - 7:34pm
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Back-to-back studies show glaring racial unemployment discrepancies in the country’s Empire State. Jesse Russell reports:

Earlier this week New York City’s Comptroller released unemployment data showing a major discrepancy of unemployment rates based on race. The Fiscal Policy Institute also compared their own numbers for the last year ending on April 30th. Chief Economist James Parrott said they discovered that while minorities continued to lose jobs, white workers actually gained jobs.

[Parrott]: The number of white non-hispanics with jobs actually increased by 130,000 whiles the combined employment of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians fell by 60,000. Now this is a city where members of minority groups account for 62 percent of the resident New York City workforce.

Parrott also worked out the real unemployment rate which accounts for people who are discouraged workers or working part time when they want full time.

[Parrott2]: In terms of, quote, real unemployment rate, what we see for black men in New York state that’s about 20 percent already and again that’s looking over a 12 month period.