Black men have historically had the highest unemployment rates, which worsened during the recession.
View full sizePeople lined up at a jobs fair. Some demographic groups have higher jobless rates than others. For example, Black men have historically hadthe highest unemployment rates. During the recession. (file wire photo)Despite improved hiring in some quarters, large groups continue to suffer.
Men, on average, remain the hardest hit by the recession, Labor Department data show:
• "Overall, black men and white men are employed at higher rates than are black women and white women; however, employment rates have fallen much more sharply for men than for women in either racial group since the 2007 recession," said a department report concluded in July.
• Black men have historically had the highest unemployment rates of any adult group. Their jobless rates increased nearly 140 percent between 2007 and 2011, an analysis by Cleveland economic research analyst George Zeller found. The national unemployment rate in August was 9.1. For black men, it was 19.1 percent.
• Jobless rates for white men increased more than 95 percent between 2007 and 2011, Zeller found. In August, their unemployment rate was 8.4 percent.
Black workers on average have higher unemployment rates even when compared with white people of similar educational backgrounds, Labor Department figures show. The greatest disparity occurs among those with less education.
Unemployment rates among black men have risen significantly since the 1970s when the U.S. manufacturing base began to erode, said Bruce Weinberg, an economics professor at Ohio State University. Among the theories is that blue collar jobs tended to stress manual skills over the more subjective interpersonal skills valued in the service-based economy that began emerging at that time.
"It is pretty striking," Weinberg said. "The racial pay gap was closing very rapidly through the mid to late 1970s; and if it had continued to close at the rate that it was closing, today there would be no gap in earnings between whites and blacks after you controlled for background characteristics like education."
Walter Simmons, chairman of the department of economics and finance at John Carroll University, said since training and education have been shown to help close the gap, an infusion of government funding for training programs in expanding industries is necessary.
"I don't see solving the problem without some mass government assistance. Some may view it as a dirty phrase, but it is an investment that will benefit the individual, the community and the nation. It is an investment in human capital that will pay off in the long run."