Left Margin

On Both Side of the Pond: Bad news for Young Black
Workers

By Carl Bloice, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
BC
March 18, 2012

http://www.blackcommentator.com/463/463_lm_young_black_workers.php

Some truly distressing news made its way across the
Atlantic last week. The jobless rate for young black
male jobseekers in Britain rose from 28.8 percent in
2008 to 55.9 percent at the end of last year. According
to government statistics, "Unemployment rate for black
16 to 24-year-olds available for work now double that
for white counterparts," James Ball, Dan Milmo and Ben
Ferguson wrote in the Guardian March 9, reflecting the
fact that "the recession is hitting young black people
disproportionately hard." (Unemployment among young
black women - nearly 40 percent - is also higher than
any other ethnic group). The figures, the paper said,
"brought calls for further government action from
business and community figures in the UK."

The jobless statistics for the U.S. in February came
out last week and while the overall picture improved
somewhat (for which the Obama Administration can justly
take much of the credit), the unemployment rate for
African Americans has gone up from 13.6 percent in
January to 14.1 percent. The rate for black youth fell
from 38.5 percent to 34 percent over the month. The
significant fact about this category is that while
fluctuating a little month by month the jobless rate is
it stubbornly high and has been so for years.

Because of differing methods used to compile
statistics, the numbers for the U.S. and the UK are not
directly comparable. Also, over there "black" refers
primarily to people whose family origins are in Africa
or the Caribbean. However, the message from London is
stark: over 50 percent of young black men are jobless;
the same holds true for some metropolitan areas of this
country.

Last week, citing youth jobless numbers of nearly 30
percent in Ireland and close to 50 percent in Greece,
economist Paul Krugman wrote that some countries "are
systematically denying a future to their young people."

Youth unemployment rates remain alarmingly high on both
side of the Atlantic - indeed, through much of the
capitalist world. At the same time, the Republican
Party in the U.S. and the political Right in Europe
press forward with their aim of compelling workers to
work more years before retiring, not exactly a formula
for creating job vacancies for first time job seekers
to fill.

The most recent unemployment statistics for the U.S.
indicate a significant, and welcome, downward trend.
They also further illustrate the precariousness of the
situation for young workers and people of color in
today's still crisis prone economies. Latino workers
also saw their jobless rate climb slightly in February
to 10.7 percent from 10.5 percent the month before.
Although few in official Washington will cotton up to
it, and the media ignores those who do, special
measures are called for. Such steps were taken during
the Great Depression of the 1930s. The government can,
and should, move to alleviate the situation by being
the employer of last resort. But it won't happen as
long as the neo-liberal, free marketers rule the day in
Washington.

"Since the start of the Great Recession, the national
unemployment rate peaked in 2010 with an annual average
of 9.6 percent," Algernon Austin, director of the Race,
Ethnicity and the Economy program at the Economic
Policy Institute, wrote on Bet.com March 8.  "Everyone
would agree that 9.6 percent is a high rate of
unemployment. From 2002 to 2005, however, before the
Great Recession, the African-American unemployment rate
was over 10 percent. Since 2008, the Black unemployment
rate has exceeded 10 percent. My current projections
are that the Black unemployment rate will continue to
exceed 10 percent through 2015."

The sad fact is that for most of the past 50 years, the
black unemployment rate has been above 10 percent.
While whites have experienced short periods of high
unemployment, high unemployment has been a consistent
feature of African-American life," wrote Austin.

On March 5, Diane Abbott, a Labor Party member of the
British Parliament, wrote in the Guardian, "One of the
causes of high black unemployment is shared by working
class males whatever their color. Structural changes in
the economy mean that the type of blue-collar jobs that
the first generation of migrants did no longer exists.
When I was a child, areas like Willesden and Park Royal
in north-west London were full of manufacturing and
light-engineering factories. The large black community
there owes its existence partly to just those
employment opportunities. But these jobs have largely
vanished from London."

Something similar can be said about Gary, Indiana,
Cleveland, Ohio and Oakland, California.

"There is no question that a lack of qualifications
holds some young black people back," continued Abbot
whose forbearers emigrated from Jamaica.  "But there is
anecdotal evidence that black people emerging from
university with the same qualifications as their white
peers find it much more difficult to get employment.
Lack of qualifications alone does not account for this
level of unemployment."

"What is clear is that this recession is hitting ethnic
minorities disproportionately hard," continued Abbot.
"And the figures can only get worse. Black people,
particularly women, are more likely to work in the
public sector. This is partly because in diverse inner-
city areas the public sector is the biggest employer.
But it is also because large public-sector
organizations tend to have better, more transparent
policies around equal opportunity. Yet the public
sector is bearing the brunt of [Prime Minister] George
Osborne's cuts."

Sound familiar?

"Some people will be antagonized by any discussion of
the fact that spiraling unemployment is hitting black
people hardest," Abbot continued. "They may think it a
price worth paying for cutting back on public spending.
Or they may argue that it doesn't matter what color you
are. But the more unequal a society, the unstable it
is. And inequality with a racial dimension risks
creating a time bomb. The immediate response to last
summer's riots was (quite correctly) a call to restore
order. But these figures are not irrelevant.
Policymakers cannot afford to ignore black
unemployment.

"Hardworking immigrant grandparents would not want
special treatment for this generation: after all, they
themselves did not have any. But they would expect this
society to care, and be prepared to examine carefully
what the underlying reasons might be. That generation
of migrants were God-fearing monarchists. So they would
expect fairness and justice. And as their grandchildren
might put it: `No Justice, No Peace'."
_________________

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice
is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National
Coordinating Committee of the Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly
worked for a healthcare union.

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