Meltdown – Black Jobless Rate Twice That Of Whites 16.2% to 8%

One Year Anniversary Unemployed Let Them Eat Cake

Something is seriously wrong in the black community when it comes to a May 2011 unemployment rate of 16.2% that is over twice that of whites at 8%. What does this prolonged and deep joblessness mean to a community that was already experiencing problems?

Once again the numbers tell a tale of two Americas. African Americans are going through a depression as their unemployment rate is twice that of some other groups. What kind of erosion of wealth and future prospects is taking place as this drags on? The housing crisis took huge chunks of net worth out of a community that was already lagging the mainstream. Why are black Americans having a much harder time finding work?

One issue that is not being discussed enough is that getting a job in this worker saturated market has gone back to a “who do you know” model. The buzzword of networking is the way to get past the screens and separate yourself from the hordes sending in job applications. Networking is another word for calling or finding someone that can make a difference in getting you an inside track to a job. When it comes to knowing folks that can make a difference in getting a job, most African Americans know fewer of those people.

The world of networking to get a job depends heavily on having contacts that are in positions inside companies that can say a good work, pull your resume out of the pile or even pull the trigger on hiring you. Simply put, most black people don’t have the inside networks that some other groups have and that combined with other factors make up a poison pill that results in higher unemployment rates in their community.