Some truly distressing news made its way
across the Atlantic last week. The jobless rate for young
black male jobseekers in Britain rose from 28.8 percent
in 2008 to 55.9 percent at the end of last year. According
to government statistics, �Unemployment rate for black
16 to 24-year-olds available for work now double that
for white counterparts,� James Ball, Dan Milmo and Ben
Ferguson wrote in the Guardian March 9, reflecting the
fact that �the recession is hitting young black people
disproportionately hard.� (Unemployment among young black
women - nearly 40 percent - is also higher than any other
ethnic group). The figures, the paper said, �brought calls
for further government action from business and community
figures in the UK.�
The jobless statistics for the U.S. in
February came out last week and while the overall picture
improved somewhat (for which the Obama Administration
can justly take much of the credit), the unemployment
rate for African Americans has gone up from 13.6 percent
in January to 14.1 percent. The rate for black youth fell
from 38.5 percent to 34 percent over the month. The significant
fact about this category is that while fluctuating a little
month by month the jobless rate is it stubbornly high
and has been so for years.
Because of differing methods used to compile
statistics, the numbers for the U.S. and the UK are not
directly comparable. Also, over there �black� refers primarily
to people whose family origins are in Africa or the Caribbean.
However, the message from London is stark: over 50 percent
of young black men are jobless; the same holds true for
some metropolitan areas of this country.
Last week, citing youth jobless numbers
of nearly 30 percent in Ireland and close to 50 percent
in Greece, economist Paul Krugman wrote that some countries
�are systematically denying a future to their young people.�
Youth unemployment rates remain alarmingly
high on both side of the Atlantic � indeed, through much
of the capitalist world. At the same time, the Republican
Party in the U.S. and the political Right in Europe press
forward with their aim of compelling workers to work more
years before retiring, not exactly a formula for creating
job vacancies for first time job seekers to fill.
The most recent unemployment statistics
for the U.S. indicate a significant, and welcome, downward
trend. They also further illustrate the precariousness
of the situation for young workers and people of color
in today�s still crisis prone economies. Latino workers
also saw their jobless rate climb slightly in February
to 10.7 percent from 10.5 percent the month before. Although
few in official Washington will cotton up to it, and the
media ignores those who do, special measures are called
for. Such steps were taken during the Great Depression
of the 1930s. The government can, and should, move to
alleviate the situation by being the employer of last
resort. But it won�t happen as long as the neo-liberal,
free marketers rule the day in Washington.
�Since the start of the Great Recession,
the national unemployment rate peaked in 2010 with an
annual average of 9.6 percent,� Algernon Austin, director
of the Race, Ethnicity and the Economy program at the
Economic Policy Institute, wrote on Bet.com March 8.�
�Everyone would agree that 9.6 percent is a high rate
of unemployment. From 2002 to 2005, however, before the
Great Recession, the African-American unemployment rate
was over 10 percent. Since 2008, the Black unemployment
rate has exceeded 10 percent. My current projections are
that the Black unemployment rate will continue to exceed
10 percent through 2015.�
The sad fact is that for most of the past
50 years, the black unemployment rate has been above 10
percent. While whites have experienced short periods of
high unemployment, high unemployment has been a consistent
feature of African-American life,� wrote Austin.
On March 5, Diane Abbott, a Labor Party
member of the British Parliament, wrote in the Guardian,
�One of the causes of high black unemployment is shared
by working class males whatever their color. Structural
changes in the economy mean that the type of blue-collar
jobs that the first generation of migrants did no longer
exists. When I was a child, areas like Willesden and Park
Royal in north-west London were full of manufacturing
and light-engineering factories. The large black community
there owes its existence partly to just those employment
opportunities. But these jobs have largely vanished from
London.�
Something similar can be said about Gary,
Indiana, Cleveland, Ohio and Oakland, California.
�There is no question that a lack of qualifications
holds some young black people back,� continued Abbot whose
forbearers emigrated from Jamaica.� �But there is anecdotal
evidence that black people emerging from university with
the same qualifications as their white peers find it much
more difficult to get employment. Lack of qualifications
alone does not account for this level of unemployment.�
�What is clear is that this recession is
hitting ethnic minorities disproportionately hard,� continued
Abbot. �And the figures can only get worse. Black people,
particularly women, are more likely to work in the public
sector. This is partly because in diverse inner-city areas
the public sector is the biggest employer. But it is also
because large public-sector organizations tend to have
better, more transparent policies around equal opportunity.
Yet the public sector is bearing the brunt of [Prime Minister]
George Osborne's cuts.�
Sound familiar?
�Some people will be antagonized by any
discussion of the fact that spiraling unemployment is
hitting black people hardest,� Abbot continued. �They
may think it a price worth paying for cutting back on
public spending. Or they may argue that it doesn't matter
what color you are. But the more unequal a society, the
unstable it is. And inequality with a racial dimension
risks creating a time bomb. The immediate response to
last summer's riots was (quite correctly) a call to restore
order. But these figures are not irrelevant. Policymakers
cannot afford to ignore black unemployment.
�Hardworking immigrant grandparents would
not want special treatment for this generation: after
all, they themselves did not have any. But they would
expect this society to care, and be prepared to examine
carefully what the underlying reasons might be. That generation
of migrants were God-fearing monarchists. So they would
expect fairness and justice. And as their grandchildren
might put it: �No Justice, No Peace�."
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member
Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of
the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for
a healthcare union. Click here to contact Mr. Bloice.
