Higher Unemployment for Women and African-Americans Goes Unnoticed

While the overall unemployment rate remained at 7.8% in December, unemployment rose for both women and African-Americans last month.

Despite an economy that reportedly created 155,000 jobs in December, the unemployment rate for women rose from 7.0% to 7.3%.

Even more startling, African-Americans saw a rise in unemployment, from 13.2%, in November, to 14.0% in December. The fact that the actual number of African-Americans employed fell, from 16 million to 15.8 million, during the holiday season is unusual in a month that typically sees an uptick in temporary positions.

However, there is no reaction to these increases in unemployment on the websites of the National Organization for Women (NOW) or the NAACP.  In fact, we still aren’t hearing much concern for jobs at all in Washington. President Obama and our representatives seem content simply extend unemployment benefits for another year. At the start of Obama’s first term, he moved to spending, health reform, and more spending. At the start of his second term, he has used the crisis of the Sandy Hook massacre to push for gun control, in addition to more spending. Jobs, working for a living, employment- they’re just not important to this administration.

As ABC News reports from AP:

 …And now the jobs reports have faded to become part of the background noise as Obama heads for his second term, a new Congress is in place and the political landscape remains as divided as ever, the economic outlook as uncertain.