Preview

Unemployment Rate Among Blacks and Why It Is High

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1292 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Unemployment Rate Among Blacks and Why It Is High
There has been a constant fall in unemployment amongst black people. Society and their stereotypes about black people have a lot to do with it. Discrimination is also a reason. Millions of African Americans live in communities that lack access to good jobs and good schools and suffer from high crime rates. African American adults are about twice as likely to be unemployed as whites, black students delay their white peers in educational completion and achievement, and African American communities tend to have higher than average crime rates. These issues have been persistent problems. I chose to write on this issue because I am a black female that will be seeking employment and I am concerned about the wellbeing of my future.
This issue is important and should not be looked over because jobs are essential to improving African American communities. Increased employment would help people in these communities lift themselves out of poverty. Also, because poor economic conditions are an important contributing factor behind poor educational outcomes and high crime rates are linked with high unemployment rates. Creating job opportunities would help improve educational outcomes and reduce crime.
Some communities of the lower class have an effect on why there is a great number of unemployed black people. When being raised in poor neighborhoods with no motivation and a constant view of crime, there will be a big chance that the lifestyle will become a part of your everyday lifestyle. Everyone does not get caught into this lifestyle but many do. Preferably a lot of black males get so caught up in living the “fast life” that they have no motivation to work legally. It all comes down to how you were raised in your household. Black guys in this generation are more concerned with how many designer clothes they could own or what will be their next tattoo. From what I see, some black guys are afraid to seek a normal job because the way their mentality is, to them it is not cool

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The continuation of the application of affirmative action in the labor market. “Affirmative action is one of the most controversial government interventions in the labor market since the abolition of slavery.”(Jonathan Leonard) Affirmative action pertaining to the labor market takes a very different stance. Under Executive Order 11246 (part of the Civil Rights Act), “ you are not to discriminate against any employee because of race, color, religion and sex, as well as take affirmative action to ensure that there is a diversity of employees”. The contradiction of this statement is astonishing, and to have that nailed in the coffin known as our Constitution, is the ultimate blow on the use of this policy in the workplace. The fact that we must not consider race, but consider it in terms of diversity is overall a confusing concept and forced employers to establish ‘quotas’ to meet racial goals. This is very beneficial for white collar or craft jobs, where employers are hesitant to hire minorities or women because they do not believe they can handle the burden of the job. This maybe one of the only circumstances where federal pressure is advantageous, and statistics show that establishments are growing to give more job openings specially for african americans, hispanics and other minorities, decreasing its 89% white-hiring percentage. The effects of these kinds of policies are significant on a 99% confidence level or better, and have resulted in better representation in establishments(especially minority females) and also benefit companies in their own employment growth. However, these job openings are mainly in unskilled positions reducing the production of specially-skilled members of society, and basically producing only white specialties. Studied by Ashenfelter and Heckman(1976), taking african americans as an…

    • 2122 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This scenario happens all too often in our society. Young black girls and boys are being denied jobs because of inadequate work experience or etiquette. Sadly, for those who can’t work or don’t feel the need to work, they are forced to rely on the provisions of others or displeasing methods to earn their means of living. The aforementioned story line cannot only unfold in the workforce for young black people, but also in every other facet of their lives. As an African-American community, if we don’t instill good moral values or provide an upstanding family home life for our youth, they will not be prepared for a promising future.…

    • 3126 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The underclass is not a major threat to American ideals because as of 1997, more than 1.8 million people were in prisons, jails and juvenile facilities, because they have been a menace to their fellow citizens. It is a major accomplishment that crime has gone down. It has been achieved not by socializing the underclass, but by putting large numbers of its members behind bars. Unemployment rates have dropped. Suppose we turn instead to a less-publicized statistic, but one of the most significant in trying to track the course of the underclass, the percentage of young males not in the labor force. When young men neither work nor look for work, most are living off the underground economy or on handouts, periodically, getting a job, then quitting or getting fired, consigning themselves to a life at the margins of the economy. The increase in labor force dropout is largest among young black males. The proportion that are not working or looking for work averaged 17% during the 1980’s. As of 1997, it stood at 23%. That these increases in labor-force dropout have occurred despite a sustained period of high demand for workers at all skill levels is astonishing and troubling. Illegitimacy ratio is another factor. It is the percentage of babies who are born to unmarried women. The black illegitimacy ratio as of 1997 stood at a catastrophic 69%. So therefore,…

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The black community is having a hard time in America right now, because of the amount of disrespect they are getting, they also get disadvantages such as limited job opportunities.…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2015, the rate for African American employment was 9.5% compared to 4.5% for whites. The article, “Education Gaps Don't Fully Explain Why Black Unemployment Is So High” by Gillian White, provides data over the years on how African American unemployment rates have always been historically higher. For example, in 2011 the percentage of white people who did not attend college was 6.9%, while the percentage of African Americans who did not attend was severely higher at 16.1%. Another article, “Black unemployment rate is consistently twice that of whites” by Drew Desilver, provides more evidence that African American unemployment from 1954-2013 has always been twice as high as white unemployment. Wright would feel with upset with society for letting this happen and not providing the necessary means to decrease the rates of African American…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jim Crow Laws played a major role in employment inequality. For example, black barbers were unable to service white women and white nurses were unable to services black men. The employment disparities in segregated cities such as Birmingham, Alabama created major economic issues for African Americans. The unemployment rate for blacks in the 1960’s were almost triple that of whites as there were no black police officers, firefighters, bus drivers or bank tellers to name a few.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Work Disappears

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To begin, Wilson explains how location of jobs, cost of child care and medical insurance, training and education required for jobs, and racial segregation are factors of joblessness in these inner cities. Each of these factors caused many people in the inner cities to become unemployed. Some cause people to become unqualified to work, and some cause inner cities residents to become obsolete. One factor makes the job too far away and causes the people unable to get to the job.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is a huge number of African Americans who are employed in common labor, in which most of them are now engaged, sure that there is no desire for the advancement of Negroes in their employ because they have difficulty with people of their own race. In other words, they have not yet been able to adjust or accept taking orders from another person of their own race.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many employed African American men are overrepresented in lower skilled and low-wage manual labor jobs, the most of these jobs have higher toxic substances of work environments and are physically painful and hazardous. In the past, some dirty and dangerous jobs were referred to as ‘‘Negro work.’’Stressors and negative emotional states created by these working conditions can lead to health behaviors such as impaired sleeping patterns, increased substance use, and eating disorder.…

    • 149 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Rick neglected to acknowledge the systematic racism that runs rampant throughout our country. Systematic racism, which as stated by the Children’s Defense Fund “occurs when the way a society is structured systematically ends up giving advantages to some and disadvantages to others” is a problem that effects so many blacks within the country especially in situations on whether or not you will get hired for a job. In fact, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “by race, whites made up the majority of the labor force (79 percent). Blacks and Asians made up an additional 12 percent and 6 percent, respectively. (2)” While some might disregard this information due to the fact that whites make up the majority of our population and by extension the majority of our workforce, according to Janell Ross – a writer for the online news website the National Journal, “12.4 per¬cent of black col¬lege gradu¬ates between the ages of 22 and 27 were un¬em¬ployed. For all col¬lege gradu¬ates in the same age range, the un¬em¬ploy¬ment rate stood at just 5.6 per¬cent. The fig¬ures point to an ugly truth: Black col¬lege gradu¬ates are more than twice as likely to be un¬em¬ployed.” Furthermore, it does not stop there, along with it being easier for whites land a job in comparison to…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    However, the MET’s low minimum deposit requirements complicate such stimuli as families cannot save enough minimum wages to pay for college. Under the current system, most working-class families do not make enough money to pay for college. Non-college graduate families of all races make a national average of $36,523 annually, which is merely 150% of the federal poverty line for a household of four. Given these statistics, it should not be difficult to understand that working-class families have no choice but to immediately spend the meager wages they earn by “tomorrow” to survive. Therefore, such families have little disposable income available to deposit into MET accounts. When, for instance, the non-college educated working parents of a family…

    • 188 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Vulnerable Population

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages

    African American job opportunities have increased since the civil war but the average annual income for an African American household is 20K less than a year than the American median income.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beginning in the 1970s, wage rates began to decline and unemployment rates began to rapidly rise. This economic crisis that arose broadened the economic oppression that effected the African American population (Taylor, 2016, p. 53). These conditions remain unremitting in the current economic state of the United States. Undoubtedly, African Americans and other nonwhite minority groups, such as Hispanics, suffer the most from these circumstances, while whites are consistently more prosperous. Many people in the United States believe that persistent racial inequalities, in such cases as wages, income, residence, and healthcare, can be attributed to African American culture and individual failures, not racism (Brown, 1971, p. 6). However, this cannot explain the continuance of inequality once African American individuals acquire the education, skills, and experience necessary to prosper in the labor market. Whites still have an advantage over blacks and the attitudes of many white Americans remain unchanged because of the negative stereotypes that have accumulated. Moreover, the problem with the apparent advantage that whites…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Black people were the last one got hire and the first one got fire when they applied for job. They had very bad situation because they could not find a job easily. That’s why most of them become unemployment and the rest who had job their salary were low. Black people had problem with transportation because most of them did not had a car so it was hard for them to apply for job.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Race Matters

    • 3589 Words
    • 15 Pages

    In America, society likes to believe that America is a Color Blind Society. They say they don’t see race, but just Americans. It has been noted that whites who are exposed to images or shows of upper-middle-class blacks, like the Huxtable family in The Cosby Show, the Kyle family in My Wife and Kids or the Banks family in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, believe that blacks have the same socioeconomic opportunities as whites (Gallagher 94). Media is one of the main reasons why people in today’s society might believe that America is a Color Bind Society with television shows, like the ones stated above, and celebrities, like Jay Z and P-Diddy, who are doing very well for themselves. A 1997 Gallup poll found that most whites believe that blacks have “as good a chance as whites” in the community in finding jobs and a Kaiser Family 1997 Poll found that most whites believe that blacks are doing at least as well or better than whites in income and educational attainment (Gallagher 98). However black men, over the age of 25, had a 12.3 percent unemployment rate in 2012 while white men, over the age of 25, had a 6.1 percent unemployment rate in 2012 (Bureau of Labor Statistics: House Hold Data Annual Averages).…

    • 3589 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays