Black Unemployment Still Twice as High as White Unemployment

While the economy added jobs and the national unemployment rate was relatively unchanged, the African American unemployment rate remained more than twice as high as the white unemployment rate and nearly double the national unemployment rate, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during the month of March the unemployment rate among African Americans was 9.0 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the month of February but a decrease of one percentage point compared to a year ago.

Among whites the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent during the month of March, the same as the prior two months and 0.4 percentage points lower than March 2015.

Asians experienced the lowest unemployment rate of any racial group analyzed by the BLS, with an employment rate of 4.0 percent — 0.2 percentage points higher than the month of February, and 0.8 percentage points higher than a year ago.

The unemployment rate for Hispanics was 5.6 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to February and decrease of 1.2 percentage points from a year ago.

In keeping with the longer-term trend, the unemployment rate among teens was triple the national unemployment rate with teens ages 16-19 experiencing an unemployment rate of 15.9 percent. White teens had an unemployment rate of 13.9 percent, African American teen unemployment was 25.3 percent, and Hispanic teens had an unemployment rate of 15.6 percent.

The national unemployment rate was 5.0 percent in March.