Rising Tides?
February 2011: 15.3%
March 2011: 15.5%
April 2011: 16.1%
May 2011: 16.2%
read CREWof42, the blog on the congressional black caucus
read CREWof42, the blog on the congressional black caucus
Overall unemployment is 9.1%. Black unemployment is 16.2%. There is an unconfirmed stat claiming black male unemployment is at a 40 year high. Black male unemployment went from an already outrageously high 17% in April 2011 to an even more outrageously high 17.5% for May 2011 – the HIGHEST unemployment category.
Black Unemployment was 15.5% in May 2010, three months after President Obama met with the NAACP’s Ben Jealous, the National Urban League’s Marc Morial and the Rev. Al Sharpton in black unemployment. At that meeting they were told “a rising tide lifts all boats” and that black unemployment would improve when numbers improved in general. Then:
February 2011: 15.3%
March 2011: 15.5%
April 2011: 16.1%
May 2011: 16.2%
The black unemployment rate got worse again in May 2011. This is the fourth straight month the numbers have been worse. Overall unemployment came in at 9.1%. At 17% in May, black males represent the group with the highest rate of unemployment. Overall, black unemployment was 16.5% in April on 2010. It was 16.1% in April of this year.
During a meeting with CBC Chair Emanuel Cleaver and the CBC executive board on March 30, 2011, Rep. Andre Carson asked President Obama about the issue of some sort of targeted help to improve black unemployment. Though there is the clear understanding that no President can target one group for assistance based on race, there is also an understanding that certain assistance is likely to assist those in the worst unemployment categories — whether they be black or white. Carson was said to have received no definitive reaction from the President.
The New York Times reminded us yesterday that no president since Franklin Roosevelt has won re-election with unemployment above 7.2%. The overall number for May of 2011 is 9.1%. Today’s unemployment numbers give us reason to assume President Obama would have to defy the above statistic to win.
read CREWof42, the blog on the congressional black caucus