Black Unemployment Declines, Still Higher than Other Racial Groups

While the national unemployment rate remained at 5 percent in December, the unemployment rate continued to vary among demographic groups, according to data released Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the month of December, continuing a lengthy trend, Asians boasted the lowest unemployment rate, while blacks had the highest level of unemployment. Black unemployment was twice the level of Asian unemployment and nearly twice as high as unemployment among whites.

While Asians had an unemployment rate of 4 percent — up 0.1 percentage points from November — blacks had an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent. The black unemployment rate in December, however, was a significant improvement over November’s level, when the unemployment rate for the population was 9.4 percent.

According to theGrio, December’s unemployment rate for blacks was the lowest it has been since September 2007.

Unemployment among whites was 4.5 percent in December, an increase of 0.1 percentage points over November’s level. And the unemployment rate among Latinos was 6.3 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from November.

Teen unemployment was high across all racial categories. The national teen (ages 16-19) unemployment rate was 16.1 percent. White teen unemployment was 14.9 percent, black teen unemployment was 23.7 percent and Latino teen unemployment was 16.5 percent.