Black Unemployment is on the Rise

While the nation as a whole sees a more modest increase in unemployment, the Black unemployment rate has gone up almost 2 percent.

The jobless rate for Blacks jumped from 13.3 percent in March to 15 percent in April, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the Bureau of Labor statistics.

In comparison, the rate for Whites increased slightly from 7.9 percent to 8.0 and the rate for Hispanics decreased from 11.4 percent to 11.3. The overall unemployment rate for the United States increased from 8.5 percent to 8.9 percent during the same time period.

A closer look at the figures reveals that Black men are outpacing all subgroups over the age of 20 with a jobless rate of 17.2 percent, an increase from 15.4 percent in March. With the unemployment rate of 11.5 percent in April, Black women saw a jump of about 1.5 percent from March.

The private sector was hit hard too, with 611,000 reported job losses last month, according to a release from the Bureau of Labor statistics.

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