Janelle Jones at the Economic Policy Institute writes—African American and Hispanic unemployment continue to fall but remain higher than white unemployment in nearly every state:
This report provides a state-by-state breakdown of unemployment rates by race and ethnicity and racial unemployment rate gaps for the second quarter of 2017. It shows that while there have been state-by-state improvements in prospects for black and Latino workers, their unemployment rates remain high relative to those of white workers. Following are some key highlights of the report:
- While the African American unemployment rate is at or below its prerecession level in 14 states (of the 22 states and the District of Columbia for which these data are available), in 15 states and the District of Columbia, African American unemployment rates exceed white unemployment rates by a ratio of 2-to-1 or higher.
- The District of Columbia has a black-white unemployment rate ratio of 6.7-to-1, while Indiana and Louisiana have the highest ratios (2.6-to-1) among the states.
- The highest African American unemployment rate is in the District of Columbia (12.8 percent) followed by Louisiana (9.7 percent). The highest Latino state unemployment rate is in Connecticut (8.9 percent). In contrast, the highest white state unemployment rate is 5.0 percent, in New Mexico.
- While the Hispanic unemployment rate is at or below its prerecession level in nine states (of the 16 states for which these data are available), Colorado was the only state where the Hispanic unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate.
- In three states, Hispanic unemployment rates exceed white unemployment rates by a ratio of 2-to-1 or higher (Massachusetts, 2.3-to-1; Connecticut, 2.1-to-1, and Pennsylvania, 2.0-to-1).
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“Today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income since the 1920s and more than any other major industrialized country on Earth. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of America—150 million people. Today, one family, the Walton family of Wal-aMart, own more wealth than the bottom 30%. Today, the top 1% own 40% of all the wealth, while the bottom 60% owns less than 2%.”
~Sen. Bernie Sanders
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Katrina:
The last four days I was in an isolated cabin in Clinton, Montana, with only tenuous links to the outside world. Today was the first time I was able to truly get a handle on the New Orleans disaster, and it's almost too staggering to comprehend. It's downright biblical.
This is the greatest disaster to hit our nation in most of our lifetimes. Worse than 9-11. New Orleans is underwater. Biloxi is 90 percent destroyed. Who knows how many dead. Who knows how many homeless. Who knows how many jobless. We have a bona fide refugee crisis on our hands.
There will be a time for a full accounting of what went wrong, both preparing for this thing and relief efforts afterward. I don't know if the time is now or later. Honestly, I don't much care. I'm too horrified by what I'm seeing today. It's overwhelming.
I just wish that the president gave a damn about what's happened. Unfortunately, he's too busy playing 'country rock star"
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin brought us the latest headlines on Harvey and Houston. Joan McCarter was on hand to warn us of the September from hell, and straighten us out on just what was and wasn’t happening between Trump and Mattis on transgender service members.
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