Study Shows Depth of Unemployment for Blacks in New York
(New York Times) — The headline on a new report tells the bad news: “Only One in Four Young Black Men in New York City Have a Job.” The report, prepared by the Community Service Society of New York, has other unhappy news about this group — that the unemployment rate for African-American men in New York, age 16 to 24, was 33.5 percent from January 2009 through June 2010, while the labor force participation rate was 38 percent. “The recession has created a landscape of the unemployed and underemployed with particular catastrophic consequences for young African-American men,” said David R. Jones, president of the Community Service Society, an advocacy group for New York’s low-income residents. “Now young black men between 16 and 24 years have become the banner of hopelessness, particularly here in New York City.”