For African Americans, Time Does Not Heal Economic Wounds

Three years after the Great Recession, America still sees itself in the midst of an economic recovery, with families struggling with long-term unemployment or in jobs that barely pay enough to make ends meet. all communities have been affected during the three-year period, but according to a recent report by the Center for American Progress, African Americans are “the clear exception” to the improvement of economic distress caused by the recession.

The report finds that African Americans continue to experience higher unemployment rates and inadequate job opportunities, and are more likley to have lower household incomes and lack health insurance than other groups.

As the report indicates, the unemployment rate of African Americans is “twice as high as that of white Americans,” and for African Americans who are employed, their median weekly earnings were only $674, which is significantly less compared to whites and Asian Americans who earned $744 and $866 each week respectively. During the recession, the number of African Americans working below the federal minimum wage increased by 141.5 percent, and to this day, the number of African American workers who make minimum wage continues to rise. Because of this, nearly one in four African American families found themselves below the poverty line in 2010 and by the fourth quarter of 2011, only 45.1 percent of African Americans were homeowners, which is lower than the group’s homeownership rate at the end of the recession in 2009. Read more.....