Black Unemployment More Than Twice As High As White Unemployment

Unemployment among African Americans is more than twice as high as white unemployment and nearly twice as high as the national average, according to government data released Friday.

The disparity is even more dramatic among African American teens whose unemployment rate is five times the national average and nearly twice as high as their white counterparts.

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the month of October the unemployment rate among African Americans was 9.2 percent. Among white Americans, however, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the national average was 5.0 percent. And unemployment among Asian Americans was 3.5 percent and 6.3 percent among Latinos.

The employment situation among African American teens (ages 16-19) was 25.6 percent. Among white teens the unemployment rate was 13.8 percent and nationally and nationally teen unemployment was 15.9 percent.

Latino teens also experienced a high unemployment rate of 22.4 percent.

The employment imbalance comes amid good economic news which had the Obama administration heralding the addition of 271,000 jobs in October.