Black Americans Are Reentering The Work Force Faster Than Whites

Zero Hedge
October 7, 2018

While a strong economy isn't a cure for racism, it sure is doing a lot to help smooth out inequality in the labor market. As economists have taken a closer look at Friday's monthly labor-market update from the BLS, an interesting pattern has emerged that would seem to cut against the idea that only white Americans are benefiting from President Trump's policies.

To wit, Axios pointed out that the employment-to-population ratio for blacks is rising much more quickly than that of whites. Presently, roughly 59% of black Americans are employed, compared with more than 60% for whites.

According to Axios, the rise in black relative employment can be attributed to black Americans being more willing to take relatively lower-paying jobs, while white Americans are typically more inclined to wait for a higher salary. And if unemployed whites truly are holding out for higher-paying jobs, they're in for a wait, because as Deutsche Bank's Torsten Slok pointed out back in August,high-paying jobs have actually been declining throughout 2018 as employers have shifted their hiring to low-wage occupations.

Also, the pay gap between white and black workers remains stubbornly wide. The median weekly earnings for white, full-time workers in September was $907, while African Americans made $683.

But while anecdotal reports are no substitute for cold, hard data, Axios spoke with several black workers in Harlem and found that lower wages didn't deter them from taking another job.

• Tray Baynard, who is black, re-entered the workforce 3 weeks ago and took a pay cut. The 27-year-old was hired as a construction worker at World Class Demolition in New York with a salary of $18 an hour, significantly less than the $26 he earned at his previous job. "I'm not getting paid as much, but it's a job so I took it," he said.
• Onique Morris, who is also black, accepted a teaching position at New York-based P.S. 79 without shopping around for a better salary.
• "I would have taken it no matter what the pay was," said Morris, who is studying for a master's degree in education.
• Another black worker, Terrence Riley, left a job at a Carolina Herrera retail shop after two years, and went on to be a production coordinator at Oscar de la Renta. Riley said opportunity outweighed other factors, including pay.

* * *

While black unemployment is at an all time low, a little context paints a more alarming picture. For example, the unemployment rate for whites (3.3%) is roughly half that of blacks. And the black unemployment figure is also distorted by the fact that millions of incarcerated black Americans (and millions more who just aren't looking for work) are excluded from employment figures because they aren't considered participants in the labor market.

In summary, the overall employment picture for black Americans is improving under President Trump (which is perhaps one reason why the president's support among blacks has nearly doubled over the past year) - just not as quickly as the headline numbers would suggest.

Thousands face job loss when part of stimulus expires

Obama administration, Democrats face stiff GOP resistance in extending program

Marilyn Robach and Joel Brever share a moment in the Work Force Center in Blaine, Minn. Robach will join the others in unemployment at the end of the month because her job was funded by the stimulus package. Brever who lost his job recently updated his skills by studying to be residential energy auditor

By Michael Cooper

updated 9/25/2010 6:54:17 PM ET

Tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs within weeks unless Congress extends one of the more effective job-creating programs in the $787 billion stimulus act: a $1 billion New Deal-style program that directly paid the salaries of unemployed people so they could get jobs in government, at nonprofit organizations and at many small businesses.

In rural Perry County, Tenn., the program helped pay for roughly 400 new jobs in the public and private sectors. But in a county of 7,600 people, those jobs had a big impact: they reduced Perry County’s unemployment rate to less than 14 percent this August, from the Depression-like levels of more than 25 percent that it hit last year after its biggest employer, an auto parts factory, moved to Mexico.

If the stimulus program ends on schedule next week, Perry County officials said, an estimated 300 people there will lose their jobs — the equivalent of another factory closing.

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Falling off the American Dream treadmill – Real median U.S. household income falls under $50,000. Poverty rate has grown exponentially since 2000, during the housing bubble.

 mybudget360

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released troubling data on the status of American families.  The first disturbing point was that 43.6 million Americans now fall under the poverty category.  This works out to 1 out of 7 Americans.  The growth has come from many people falling off the middle class treadmill.  While the echoes of recovery blast through Wall Street the grim reality for most people is that there is a greater and greater divide occurring.  The top 1 percent still has significant control over financial resources and wealth disparity is as high as it was during the 1920s.  While many American families wait in lines outside of Wal-Marts so their food assistance debit cards refill to buy food, those calling a recovery are usually those who have been protected via bailouts since the recession started.

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With elections looming, U.S. poverty hitting record levels

Ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels, demographers claim

By HOPE YEN, LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press

A "no trespassing" sign is seen at the edge of a homeless camp in Sacramento, Calif., in this 2009 photo.

updated 9/11/2010 8:10:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON — The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama's watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

Census figures for 2009 — the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat's presidency — are to be released in the coming week, and demographers expect grim findings.

It's unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase — from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent — would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power.

"The most important anti-poverty effort is growing the economy and making sure there are enough jobs out there," Obama said Friday at a White House news conference. He stressed his commitment to helping the poor achieve middle-class status and said, "If we can grow the economy faster and create more jobs, then everybody is swept up into that virtuous cycle."

Interviews with six demographers who closely track poverty trends found wide consensus that 2009 figures are likely to show a significant rate increase to the range of 14.7 percent to 15 percent.

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CEOs: Cut more jobs, make more money

A study reveals an unsettling trend from the Great Recession: Not only did many CEOs get raises while laying off workers, those who cut more got bigger pay packages.



By Michael Brush
MSN Money

Across America, the Great Recession and its aftermath have hit the haves and the have-nots in very different ways.

Turns out that while legions of workers got pink slips, the CEOs at some of the companies making the steepest job cuts earned some of the biggest salaries. And the issue isn't the much-discussed pay gap between executives and average workers; these CEOs earned pay packages that were often two or three times the average pay for other CEOs.

Meanwhile, the layoffs cost us all -- because of a weaker economic recovery due to a dwindling consumer class and the cost to the government of supporting an army of unemployed.

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U.S. economic growth revised down to 2.7%

Final estimate of first-quarter GDP shows a sluggish recovery


msnbc
WASHINGTON - U.S. economic growth was slower than previously estimated in the first quarter as estimates of business and consumer spending were cut, according to government data on Friday.

In its final estimate, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product expanded at a 2.7 percent annual rate instead of the 3 percent pace it reported last month.

Although the growth pace was below market expectations for a 3 percent rate, it still marked three straight quarters of expansion as the economy digs out of its most brutal downturn since the 1930s.

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Bank profits rise, but so do bad loans

Check the health of your institution with BankTracker

By Wendell Cochran

Investigative Reporting Workshop, American University
updated 6:55 p.m. CT, Mon., June 14, 2010

The nation's banks keep looking for signs that they've turned the proverbial corner toward prosperity, and there may have been a few faint indicators in the first quarter that the worst days are behind them.

But after more than two years of stress, it's probably still too early for many to relax, according to quarterly financial reports compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and analyzed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington.

Even though profits increased sharply, troubled assets continued to grow. According to the Workshop's analysis, 411 banks have a "troubled asset ratio" of more than 100, up from 389 banks at the end of December. In other words, they had more problem loans and foreclosed properties on their books than capital and loan loss reserves.

While not an official FDIC statistic, the troubled asset ratio has proven to be a strong indicator of bank stress. Of the 81 banks that have failed so far this year, nearly all had trouble asset ratios above 100, according to their latest FDIC reports.


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U.S. Jobs Data Fail to Halt World Markets' Plunge

Friday, 07 May 2010 10:32 AM
MoneyNews.com

A strong set of U.S. jobs data Friday failed to shore up confidence in world markets as stocks plunged again amid mounting fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.


In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index slid 209.98 points, or 4 percent, at 5,051.01, while the pound oscillated wildly.

Germany's DAX slid 226.05 points, or 3.8 percent, to 5,682.21 while the CAC-40 in France was 112.56 points, or 3.2 percent, lower at 3,443.55.

And on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 210.09 points, or 2 percent, to 10,310.23 soon after the open while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index tumbled 26.30 points, or 2.3 percent, to 1,101.85.

There had been hopes that Wall Street would open higher after strong U.S. jobs data helped push other concerns, primarily centered on Europe's debt crisis, aside for a while.

Figures from the U.S. Labor Department showed that employers expanded payrolls by 290,000. That's the most in four years and more than the 200,000 anticipated. However, the jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent, mainly because 805,000 jobseekers — perhaps feeling better about their prospects — resumed their searches for work.

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