The demos of the unemployed tell a much more instructive story about what's really going on in our labor market. As I do monthly, here are the government reported unemployment rates and my adjusted rate based on demographics.
Asians: 3.1%
White: 3.4%
Hispanic: 4.5%
Black: 6.6%
Here are the adjusted rates once you factor in the long-term unemployed, underemployed and marginally attached workers.
Asians: 6% (down)
White: 6.5% (down)
Hispanic: 8.6% (down)
Black: 12.7% (flat)
We have a new record low unemployment rate for Hispanics this month. There was progress made everywhere except with black adults in the workforce. It illustrates the point that even in the best jobs economy in a generation and one of the best ever, we still have work to do in many minority-majority communities. In April, we reached an all-time low for black unemployment. We’ve not been able to make progress since that point. Other demographics are still seeing improvement since April. It’s likely that progress made from here will be more difficult to achieve but would be most meaningful to these communities.
It'd be easy to overlook news like this when just looking at basic averages and numbers for the report. Obviously, we continue to see the disconnects in the labor market based on demographics and it paints a picture of where and with whom we generally need to be focusing efforts going forward. In the third part of today's employment story, we'll explore the fun stuff, how much more money we're making.
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