Overall Unemployment Rate Is At African Americans’ Pre-Recession Level

Today’s unemployment levels are miserable, but a reminder that African Americans were experiencing the same pain during boom times.

There’s been a lot of expectation management over the recent news that the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. Alan Krueger noted that “[i]t is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007.” Many economists expect unemployment to increase if the economy picks up, because people who have drifted out of the labor force will start looking for work again, raising the unemployment rate. And as everyone recognizes, there’s still a terrible amount of suffering with unemployment as high as 8.5 percent — wasted capacity, wasted opportunities, and mass misery. Though things may be looking up, they are still quite painful.

One interesting thing to note is that the number in between 8.7 percent and 8.5 percent, a threshold the country just crossed, was the average unemployment rate for African Americans going into the recession. The rate from 2006-2007 for African American men and women over 16 was 8.6 percent. Let’s chart that out (click through for larger image):

Total African American unemployment is currently at 15.8 percent and has been hovering around 16 percent for three years now. All the other major employment health indicators are down as well. For instance, the employment-to-population ratio is down to 51 percent from 60 percent in 2001. Nearly half of all African Americans aren’t working.

The economy is terrible for all Americans right now and we desperately need action to both expand the economy and repeal attempts to contract it. But it is worth remembering that the unemployment misery all Americans are experiencing right now is equal to what it was like during the best two years of the 21st century for African Americans.

Mike Konczal is a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

Cross-Posted From The Roosevelt Institute’s New Deal 2.0 Blog

The Roosevelt Institute is a non-profit organization devoted to carrying forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.