Report: black college student has same chances of employment as white high school graduate
According to a report released by Young Invincibles, African-American students who have attended college have the same probability of getting a job as a white high school graduate.
Researchers took a look at data mainly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census.
They found that an African-American male with an associates degree has around the same chance of getting a job as a white male with just a high school diploma. “At every level of education, race impacts a person’s chance of getting a job,” Tom Allison, a research manager and one of the study’s authors, told ThinkProgress.
The gap in employment chances leads to a huge gap in unemployment rates between blacks and whites. In May, black millenials faced a 16.6 percent unemployment rate, compared to a 7.1 percent rate for whites of the same age range, 18-34.
The study cites hiring discrimination, high incarceration rates for blacks and African-Americans’ lack of inherited wealth from past generations as causes for the gap. Less inherited wealth results in low homeownership rates and high deficits among blacks.
College educated whites have a net worth of $75,000, compared to less than $17,500 for a college-educated African-American.
We must confront such injustices as they have a hold on the African-American’s quality of life.
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