Although most headlines will read that the economy added over 230,000 jobs last month, making February’s unemployment rate the lowest since December 2008, the fact remains that unemployment amongst African Americans did not change.

The rate amongst blacks was 13.8% in January and stayed there in February:

The Black unemployment rate for February was 13.8 percent, unchanged from January, according to figures released Friday morning by the Labor Department. The overall unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, the lowest in four years. In addition, the economy added 236,000 jobs.

In the week ending March 2, the number of new claims for unemployment benefits dropped from to 340,000 from 347,000 the previous week, the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported Thursday. The total number of people receiving benefits for the week ending Feb. 16, the most recent data available, was 5,401,893, compared to 7,3387,649 during the same week in 2012.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had predicted that employers added 160,000 jobs in February, while the payroll provider Automatic Data Processing gave an estimate of 198,000

 

Read more at The Guardian.

 

If the economy is robust enough to add more jobs than anticipated and put a dent in the overall job rate, why aren’t blacks reaping those benefits?

 

This has proved to be a persistent problem, yet there has been no specific strategies to alleviate the problem.

 

What can and should be done to address black unemployment?

Sound off below!!!!