Youth and Black Unemployment Drags Down National Numbers

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Based on recent government numbers, 9.6% of black or African Americans were unemployed. The figure among people 16 to 19 years old was 18.5%. These stand in sharp contrast to other age and race groups and serve to pull down the national rate.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that people who are over 55 have an unemployment rate of 3.6%. Among white Americans, the number was 4.6%. For Asians, the figure was 4.0%.

Several months ago, The Guardian offered its opinion about high joblessness among the young:

The lack of experience is a common blight for young Americans. Gone are the days when teenagers could find a job to provide them with experience — and with a paycheck to go towards their college education. At 17.1%, the unemployment rate for teenagers aged 16-19 is more than three times the unemployment rate for the general population. A lack of work experience casts a shadow on the future job opportunities.

The vicious circle is rounded by the fact that people who do not have jobs cannot get training or experience.

The black unemployment rate causes may be more varied. According to work done by Pew:

The reasons are complex, researchers say, from job cuts in the public sector to the decline of the manufacturing industry to wage stagnation to discrimination. Mass incarceration in the black community also plays a role, since people with criminal records have a harder time finding work, according to Sarah Treuhaft, director of equitable growth initiatives for the Oakland-based think tank, PolicyLink.

Once again the problems form a circle. More than 50% of people released from jail will be arrested again. Separately, some manufacturing jobs have gone “overseas” as American companies try to save money.

The wide range of problems that cause high unemployment among blacks and youth are different enough that one policy cannot improve them, which makes finding one solution impossible.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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