Black Employment Numbers Are Up, But Women Are Getting All the Jobs

October 15th, 2012 - By Tonya Garcia

Image: Thinkstock

As we’ve reported here a couple of times in the past few weeks, the U.S employment situation is improving with each report. The numbers for black Americans, who have suffered acutely during this Great Recession, has also seen improvement.

The percentage of African Americans with a job has gone from 52.7 percent to 53 percent with the unemployment rate falling to 13.4 percent. Overall, The Root reports, black employment has risen .5 percent over the past year.

However, a shadow cast on all this positive news is that African-American women have made all of the most recent jobs gains.

“Among adults ages 20 and over, all of the gains for African Americans were among women. Although the share of black adult women overall employed rose from 55.1 percent to 55.3 percent, the share of black adult men employed fell from 57.7 percent to 57.5 percent,” the site says.

The story goes on to say that gains are being made across the private sector while the public sector suffers (600,000 jobs have been lost in this area), and for those with a college degree while those with only a high school diploma still struggle.

But, also on a positive note, the percentage of people who quit their job rather than being laid off grew to 7.9 percent and wages are growing, though modestly.

Now that we’re moving into a period where jobs are being created, the middle class needs security and we need to bring everyone at that level and below up a notch.

“The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Economic Mobility Project recently released a report projecting that 68 percent of African-Americans reared in the middle of the wealth ladder will not do as well as the previous generation,” Business Insider reports. The story continues with the National Urban League’s report showing that gains for the black middle class over the past 30 years have been erased by this recession.

“That nest egg is central to the discussion about the middle class. It’s often key to how well a family rebounds after a financial catastrophe, or whether a kid makes it to college,” the article says. That’s where those wealth numbers become important. And they’re scary. Black wealth fell by half between 2005 and 2009 to just $5,677 per average household. For whites, that figure fell just 16 percent… to $113,149. The problem is two-fold: blacks in the middle class have usually been lower middle class, and they got there through the public sector jobs that have been steadily disappearing during this economic downturn. The economy has pushed many black homeowners into a fragile situation with many losing their homes all together.

“Home values and equity are a huge deal because homes accounts for about 60 percent of black wealth,” BI says.

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  • James76107

    James76107 • a minute ago

    Some of the comments herein seem to ignore the fact that the percentage of Black men employed fell from 57.7 to 57.5 while that of Black women rose from 55.1 to 55.3 which put the lie to the comforting narrative, some black women have been accepted, of largely achieving Black women as contrasted with largely “trifling” Black men.

    Some of these commenting appear to be “in denial” and “taken back” by the fact these numbers fail to support that narrative.

    A few years ago, an analysis of African American employment that was stratified by income and education showed — at a time when black women were claiming to have no availability of Black men at their level — that Black men at every level of professionalism were only slightly less in number (consistent with their smaller percentage of the African American population) than Black women at that same level, and earned slightly higher pay, than the Black women at that level.

    Because the percentage of the general Black Population was smaller and smaller as the corporate ladder rose, both Black men and Black women might have found themselves as “one of the few” or “the first and/or only at their level.” with little access to a wide choice in the opposite sex. .

    At least some Black women, — including the author of “The Myth of the Black Super Woman” — interpreted this as being deprived of a selection of marriageable Black Men because of the failings of the men themselves.

    Reinforcing this sense of both achievement and deprivation were a books, movies, and plays that both affirmed the accomplishments of Black women and portraying Black Men as obsolete, single and dangerous

    Not a few Black women were fine with this picture as it supports their ego and super-ego

  • James76107

    Some of the comments herein seem to ignore the fact that the percentage of Black men employed fell from 57.7 to 57.5 while that of Black women rose from 55.1 to 55.3 which put the lie to the comforting narrative, some black women have been accepted, of largely achieving Black women as contrasted with largely “trifling” Black men.

    Some of these commenting appear to be “in denial” and “taken back” by the fact these numbers fail to support that narrative.

    A few years ago, an analysis of African American employment that was stratified by income and education showed — at a time when black women were claiming to have no availability of Black men at their level — that Black men at every level of professionalism were only slightly less in number (consistent with their smaller percentage of the African American population) than Black women at that same level, and earned slightly higher pay, than the Black women at that level.

    Because the percentage of the general Black Population was smaller and smaller as the corporate ladder rose, both Black men and Black women might have found themselves as “one of the few” or “the first and/or only at their level.” with little access to a wide choice in the opposite sex. .

    At least some Black women, — including the author of “The Myth of the Black Super Woman” — interpreted this as being deprived of a selection of marriageable Black Men because of the failings of the men themselves.

    Reinforcing this sense of both achievement and deprivation were a books, movies, and plays that both affirmed the accomplishments of Black women and portraying as obsolete, single and dangerous

    Not a few Black women were fine with this picture as it supports their ego and super-ego

  • LT

    What is the source of this information? This article appears to be propaganda to take the focus off of the reality of the situation, which is the majority of educated, competent black females have lost their positions and are NOT getting re-hired at the same level. It would be interesting to know where these statistics are coming from and if these black women are getting hired for positions that match their credentials, or if these so-called job stats are referring to menial positions for which they are way over qualified. Every educated sister that I speak to that had a top paying position and are in their 40′s have been laid off for a while. This article is bs. Moreover, there are more brothers that have jobs in the private sector than black females depending on which state you are in. As long as the “Lily Ledbedder’s” continue to rise in the workplace, educated, competent black woman will be headed out the door. This is the reality. Wake up and stop feeding into their b.s. reality and put the truth out there so that something can be done about it.

  • Nehemiah53

    I am happy to see the sisters getting jobs, however the type of jobs that is available now that we are a service economy or the type typically reserve for women, America is no longer a industrial heavy industry economy so that leave a lot of men standing on the outside looking in, it was the same for women before and a little after WWII when we were a heavy industry economy men had most of the jobs and when we went from a industry economy to a service economy which is more suitable for females.

    • Kayo Halana Malie

      But you know, service jobs aren’t ‘reserved’ for women. Service jobs can be done by women or men.

      • Nehemiah53

        Women are typically just better at service jobs than men and that’s a known
        fact, there are something’s in this world that females are better at than males
        and there are something’s in this world that males are better at than females we
        all have our strengths and women are better suited for service industry, besides
        if men start and focus on and taking service jobs then what are the women going
        to do?

        • Kayo Halana Malie

          Men could be just as good at service jobs if they didn’t think of it as woman’s work.

          • Nehemiah53

            Ok so if men do get good at service work then what would that leave for women?

  • Nat

    Black women are perceived to be less threatening than black men and provide the notorius ‘twofer’ in regards to creating a diverse workforce. Historically, the effort to marginalize a group of people has started with the figurative (and sometimes literal) castration of the male.

  • Des

    Maybe some women are more determined to find a job because they are the sole provider for their children. Also aren’t more black women finishing college than black men?

    • victoria

      Yes, more black women have an higher education than black men. This may be a reason why

    • Nehemiah53

      You are some what right but remember we are now a service economy which is
      suitable for women, when we were a heavy industrial economy men had most of the
      jobs and we had less of our children in jails, less of our children were getting killed and less teen age pregnancy etc. I am just saying.

      • Kayo Halana Malie

        Even so, it is not as if men can’t learn how to work in the service industry.

        • Nehemiah53

          You are right!

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