Black Female Worker Jobless Rate Jumps To 13.4 Percent Under Obama & GOP House of Representatives

Between March and April 2011, the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States jumped from 12.5 to 13.4 percent under the Democratic Obama Administration and the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives; while the official unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 16.8 to 17 percent, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The number of unemployed African-American female workers over 20 years-of age increased by 90,000 (from 1,127,000 to 1,217,000) between March and April 2011; and the number of jobless African-American male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 21,000 (from 1,361,0000 to 1,382,000) during this same period. In addition, between March and April 2011 the number of Black women workers over 20 years-of-age with jobs dropped by 87,000 (from 7.923,000 to 7,836,000); while the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age with jobs dropped by 27,000 (from 6,758,000 to 6,731,000). The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years of age was still 41.6 percent in April 2011, while the official unemployment rate for all Black workers over 16 years-of-age (female, male and youth combined) increased from 15.5 to 16.1 percent between March and April 2011.

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age also increased from 7.7 to 7.9 percent between March and April 2011; while the official jobless rate for all U.S. female white workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6.9 to 7 percent during the same period. The jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age also increased from 21.6 to 22.3 between March and April 2011; while the total number of unemployed white workers in the United States increased by 207,000 (from 9,791,000 to 9,998,000) during this same period. In addition, the number of white workers with jobs dropped by 54,000 (from 114,706,000 to 114,652,000) between March and April 2011.

Between March and April 2011, the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino or Hispanic workers in the United States also increased from 11.3 to 11.8 percent; while the number of unemployed female Latina or Hispanic workers over 20 years-of-age increased from by 49,000 (from 963,000 to 1,012,000), according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, during this same period. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino or Hispanic youth between 16 and 19 years of age was still 23.4 percent in April 2011; while the number of Asian-American workers in the United States with jobs decreased by 49,000 (from 6,881,000 to 6,832,000) between March and April 2011, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data.

For all U.S. workers (male and female) over 16 years-of-age, the official "seasonally adjusted" unemployment rate increased from 8.8 to 9 percent between March and April 2011; while the jobless rate for male workers over 16 years-of-age increased from 9.3 to 9.4 percent, the unemployment rate for female workers over 16 years-of-age increased from 8.3 to 8.4 percent, and the unemployment rate for all young workers between the ages of 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 24.5 to 24.9 percent during this same period.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 6, 4 2011 press release:

“…The unemployment rate edged up to 9.0 percent…

“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed over the month, at 8.6 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job…

“In April, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals…wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…

“Among the marginally attached, there were 989,000 discouraged workers in April…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“Employment in both state government and local government continued to trend down, with April losses concentrated in the non-educational components…

“Construction employment was about unchanged in April. This industry has shown little net movement since 2010, after having fallen sharply during the prior 3 years…”