Some of the results are slightly surprising – White women, ages 25-44, with college degrees have the lowest unemployment rate, 3.6%. This is slightly better than White men in the same age group, 3.9%. In fact, women seemed to have held on pretty well in the current down economy - overall women do better than men on this scale, 7.6% to 9.5%.
However, some of the results are troubling, if not shocking – the segment with the highest unemployment rate, a whopping 48.5%, is Black men, ages 15-24, without a high school diploma. More than anything this graph paints a picture of America, the great melting pot, still sitting atop the stove simmering with some groups faring better in the broth than others.
The New York Times spots the overall unemployment rate in this study at 8.6%. Whites have the lowest unemployment rate, 7.2%. African Americans have the highest, 13.9%. Hispanics do slightly better with, 11.3%. The unemployment rate drops as the groups get older, as it does as the level of education increases.
Racial diparity may have improved some recently, but this graph indicates the U.S. is still a ways from reaching equality. While White, male, college graduates, ages 25 to 44 hold a jobless rate of 3.9%; Black, male, college graduates in the same age group hold an 8.3% jobless rate. While not as striking, the same correlation holds between White and Hispanics and between Whites and all other races.
We will have reached equality when a chart like this is rendered useless because the differences between groups are so small they represent nothing more than statistical anomalies. And, while there is some good news about equality to be mined in these disappointing unemployment figures, we are wise to note that we still live in a country where the color of your skin impacts your ability to climb the ladder of success.
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
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