January 9, 2012 | 9:54 AM | By

Unemployment Down For Whites, Latinos

Unemployment is down, but not for everyone, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. White and Latino unemployment rates dropped between 2010 and 2011, but unemployment among blacks in is the same as it was a year ago.

Latino unemployment is at its lowest since 2009, at 11 percent. White unemployment is 7.5 percent and black unemployment is 15.8 percent.


The black unemployment rate has been roughly double that of whites since the government started tracking the figures in 1972, Bill Rodgers, chief economist with the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, explained to CNN.

“Minorities and women are heavily concentrated in public sector jobs,” Rodgers explained to CNN. “With these major cuts we’re seeing in public employment, you’re going to see minorities pushed out of these jobs.”

Read more at: colorlines.com