When Will Obama Address Black Unemployment?

The real largely untold story about our economy is the magnitude of unemployment among African-American youth.
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Thanks to the Doug Ross@Journal we are able to drill down deeper into our current "true unemployment." This includes, for example, part-timers seeking full-time work (also known as "U-6") that jumped to 14.3 percent, a six-month high.

"The Labor Force Participation Rate, has never been lower since the seventies -- the percentage of eligible workers who actually have a job -- has stubbornly remained under 64 percent since 2011." Against this background the "unemployment rate for African-Americans is a devastating 23.7 percent," for Hispanics 13.2 percent, women 11.6% and youth overall, 16.1%

The real largely untold story about our economy, however, is the magnitude of unemployment among African-American youth.

What a poignant political and historical irony that our nation's first elected African-American president would promote and sponsor a domestic political agenda that will facilitate one of the highest rates of unemployment in the African-American community, particularly among teenagers? This is exactly the probable consequence if the pending Immigration Bill passes in the House.

In a previous blog I wrote that high black unemployment is being "thrown under the bus" to satisfy the demands of the business community and the unprecedented lobbying money and efforts of Silicon Valley and other high tech businesses.

Where are the outraged voices of the labor movement and leaders in the African-American Community, aside from other voices of moral conscience? Does anybody care?

Thanks to Paul Solman of PBS Business Desk, in addition to Doug Ross's Journal, there is at least some media attention being directed at this serious problem:

"Job Rate For Poor Black Teen Dropout? Try 95%" (Paul Solman of PBS Business Desk)

Paul Solman: And how about kids that are not in school, what percentage of them ages 16 to 19 is not working now?

Andrew Sum: Over half. If you're a high school dropout you're talking about 30 percent working. Among high school grads who graduated from high school in the last three years -- we do a separate survey of them the fall after graduation -- 45 percent of them held a job, the lowest in the last 50 years we've been collecting this data. And to make it worse, of that 45 percent, only half of them were able to get a full-time job. Only one in five young high school grads, not in college, [is] working full-time.

Paul Solman: So, you mean, it's effectively an 80 percent underemployment rate?

Andrew Sum: Yes. And, if you happen to be a young black male, we're talking. Ninety percent are not working full-time.

The analysis and comments of Paul Solman are independent from those in my previous blog about the likely consequences the passage of the pending Immigration Bill will have on high black unemployment, especially among black teenagers

Why does President Obama continue to get a "pass" or "get out of jail card" free on this issue?

Is this the way our nation plans to celebrate and commemorate, next month, the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's prophetic "I Have a Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC?

Thomas Jefferson said," I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever"

What say you, Mr. President? Is the impact of the pending Immigration Bill on high black unemployment your legislative response on behalf of the "Joshua Generation" to the Dream of the "Moses Generation"?

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