Unemployment rate increased for Black men

By Frederick H. Lowe

Trice Edney News Wire

The nation’s unemployment rate rose slightly in June so did the jobless rate for Black men  20 years old and older, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

Nonfarm businesses added 213,000 jobs but the unemployment rate last month was 4 percent, an increase of a 0.2 percentage point, which added 499,000 persons to the jobless rolls. The total number of unemployed persons was 6.6 million, down from the same month a year earlier when it was 7.0 million, BLS reported. However, the civilian labor force grew by 601,000 in June. Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, attributed the increase in the jobless rate to more individuals being hopeful about job prospects.

The overall unemployment rate for Blacks in June was 6.5 percent, an increase from 5.9 percent in May but down compared to 7.2 percent in June 2017. The Black unemployment rate is much higher compared to Whites (3.5 percent), Hispanics (4.5 percent) and Asians (3.2 percent).

The jobless rate for Black men was 6.4 percent compared to 6.3 percent in May. Black men’s labor participation rate, which is the number of people available for work as a percentage of the total population, was 66.8 percent compared to 68.5 percent in May.

The unemployment rate for Black women 20 and older in June was 5.5 percent, an increase from 4.7 percent in May. The labor participation rate for Black women was 63.0 percent in June compared to 62.0 percent in May. 

The nation’s non-farm businesses added jobs in business services, manufacturing, and healthcare. Retail, however, lost 22,000 jobs.