Shocking: Black Teen Unemployment Rate 41.6%

[lostinblue 1,989]

by Mike Flynn 2 Aug 2013 Friday's jobs report was disappointing, but it also contained a truly heartbreaking statistic. Black teen unemployment is a shocking 41.6%. In July last year, the unemployment was considerably lower, at 36%. That almost half of black teens who want to work can't find jobs is a stain on Obama's economic policies.

This isn't a numbers trick. This isn't a rate based on the whole black teen population in the country. This is the proportion of the black teen population that is looking for work but can't find a job. Just in March, the number was eight points lower at 33%. The white teen unemployment rate is half the black rate, although still high at 20%.

The heartbreaking thing is that these teens haven't given up hope and left the job market, something that has artificially lowered the overall unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is based on those who want a job and are trying to find one.

In recent months, President Obama and national Democrats have increased calls to raise the minimum wage or impose "living wages" on certain companies in urban areas. Minimum wage jobs, however, are often "first jobs," providing that critical first rung on the jobs' ladder. Indeed, more than two-thirds of minimum wage employees receive a raise within the first year on the job.

You can't get a raise, however, without first having a job. Our economic policies are abandoning a generation and threatening to create a permanent underclass. It is shameful.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/02/Black-Teen-Unemployment-rate-is-416

The real solution is to bring in more undocumented democrats so perhaps next year the rate could be 95%

You take 80% of the inner city black males do not make it past the 10th grade...it is a disaster for the black community. Once the Hispanic population becomes a major voting block in american politics I believe the government programs that the blacks use to survive will be shifted,,,,shifted to support the Hispanic social programs.

[Karee 4,191]

It's all George Zimmerman's fault.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Yes because we all know folks love to hire black people.

[Harsh_77 718]

I was listening to a show on NPR last evening about the unemployment numbers and they were talking about raising the wage for people working in fast food as the present level of pay is not sufficient.

They interviewed someone who was saying how 3 generations working in fast food industry and they still cannot make ends meet.

Same time I was thinking in my head wait until suddenly all the illegal immigrants would become legal under immigration reform and there would be tons of ppl applying for the same job.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Harsh_77

[Jacque67 7,328]

Teen unemployment in London , UK is bad for all races.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Yes because we all know folks love to hire black people.

So Marvin bringing another say 50 million undocumented families into the United States will help or hurt the black unemployment rate ? At an inner city high school in my area the average black student misses over 50 days/yr for whatever reasons.....Would that carry over into an employment situation? A family member adopted a black baby over 20 years ago, She has married a black man they have 2 children. This husband beat her up and broke her arm. he was working a 14/hour job. They own their own nice hud home they bought for around $70,000 . With both parents working they can have a decent lifestyle. Husband was thrown in jail for a week for knocking the wife around. Thus he lost this job. I could go on with this story but it seems that some people shoot themselves in the foot. I understand this could happen to a white person ,,,, Would this black man being hired and then fired because of attendance have anything to do with the next black person getting hired... One wonders.

[Jacque67 7,328]

So Marvin bringing another say 50 million undocumented families into the United States will help or hurt the black unemployment rate ? At an inner city high school in my area the average black student misses over 50 days/yr for whatever reasons.....Would that carry over into an employment situation? A family member adopted a black baby over 20 years ago, She has married a black man they have 2 children. This husband beat her up and broke her arm. he was working a 14/hour job. They own their own nice hud home they bought for around $70,000 . With both parents working they can have a decent lifestyle. Husband was thrown in jail for a week for knocking the wife around. Thus he lost this job. I could go on with this story but it seems that some people shoot themselves in the foot. I understand this could happen to a white person ,,,, Would this black man being hired and then fired because of attendance have anything to do with the next black person getting hired... One wonders.

What is your point?

[Penny Lane 8,159]

It's all George Zimmerman's fault.

[Peikko 1,575]

How do people persuade themselves that this rubbish makes sense?

I am sure it is true that there is a high rate of unemployment amongst black teens, but that doesn't lead me to the conclusion that this disparity is due to failed economic policies of the present government (clearly the economy isn't working but the reasons why are far more complicated than the fact that Obama is the head of state). Nor is it possible to draw any correlation between minimum wage policy and this disparity, although again the writer seems to think that simply saying it makes it true. Opinion pieces are often divisive and driven by the need to create a sense of inclusion via the production of a rabbit pulled from the magician's hat to pin all the frustrations and ire of the reader. It's not a very sophisticated trick.

The poster then proceeds to make a bad job worse by suggesting that maybe it's all the fault of those pesky undocumented workers in the US. The issue of undocumented workers is real, but it's not the reason for there being a disparity in the rate of employment amongst teens from different backgrounds.

[Peikko 1,575]

So Marvin bringing another say 50 million undocumented families into the United States will help or hurt the black unemployment rate ? At an inner city high school in my area the average black student misses over 50 days/yr for whatever reasons.....Would that carry over into an employment situation? A family member adopted a black baby over 20 years ago, She has married a black man they have 2 children. This husband beat her up and broke her arm. he was working a 14/hour job. They own their own nice hud home they bought for around $70,000 . With both parents working they can have a decent lifestyle. Husband was thrown in jail for a week for knocking the wife around. Thus he lost this job. I could go on with this story but it seems that some people shoot themselves in the foot. I understand this could happen to a white person ,,,, Would this black man being hired and then fired because of attendance have anything to do with the next black person getting hired... One wonders.

Why on earth would it or should it? Do you even realise what you are implying? I guess not or you wouldn't have posted it.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Sure, what do you expect? And NO that is not a racist remark. It is mathmatical.

When applying for benefits the income of the entire household is counted, including children. The income of children can be exempted IF the child is under 18 AND a full time HIGH SCHOOL student. Otherwise it counts. Added income reduces benefits. The family can lose far more than the child can make and the child does not want to turn over their income to support the family.

The fact is that the level of benefits in most states far exceeds what any of the families can make in their segregated neighborhoods, with poor education and no good paying employers locally available. Welfare becmes the best choice.

What we need to do is stop penalizing people for trying to get ahead. The best way out of welfare is education and work experience. A family on welfare should be required to attend school and work...without penalty...for a period to allow them to earn a good position and get a good education. Unless we eliminate the NEED for welfare and the stop penalizing people that WANT to do better, it will never change.

[Peikko 1,575]

However, the real problem and one that no politician is going to touch, is that an economy based on exponential growth is done, over, finished. You can't create good jobs out of thin air. The US economy has always been based on a relatively small number of people benefiting from the exploitation a vast supply of readily available natural resources. These conditions no longer exist. The economy will have to evolve to something quite different. it's going to hurt one way or another.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

How do people persuade themselves that this rubbish makes sense?

I am sure it is true that there is a high rate of unemployment amongst black teens, but that doesn't lead me to the conclusion that this disparity is due to failed economic policies of the present government (clearly the economy isn't working but the reasons why are far more complicated than the fact that Obama is the head of state). Nor is it possible to draw any correlation between minimum wage policy and this disparity, although again the writer seems to think that simply saying it makes it true. Opinion pieces are often divisive and driven by the need to create a sense of inclusion via the production of a rabbit pulled from the magician's hat to pin all the frustrations and ire of the reader. It's not a very sophisticated trick.

The poster then proceeds to make a bad job worse by suggesting that maybe it's all the fault of those pesky undocumented workers in the US. The issue of undocumented workers is real, but it's not the reason for there being a disparity in the rate of employment amongst teens from different backgrounds.

The reason is a cultivated underclass dependent on welfare because if they try to get jobs and get ahead, they lose more than they can gain.

in our state, for example, a family of four (single mom and 3 kids) can receive in benefits the before tax income equivilent of more than $50,000 per year!!!!!!!!! Before TAX equivilent. Add 22% to that figure what they need to make in a base salary to equal that AFTER tax. Most of the people have poor educations, no job experience, no good employers in their neighborhoods. If they get a job, they will lose some of those benefits. Even on a $ for $ basis, WHY would anyone want to work? They do not have the education or skills to make anywhere near that amount of money. The BEST choice for their family is welfare and public aid.

This contains people, generation after generation in this lifestyle. It is not the policy of the current administration, it has been going on since just after the civil rights movement got traction. It was no longer possible to legislate black people into certain neighborhoods, lifestyles and conditions...now they are economically lured there and trapped as solidily as if we built a wall around them. Yeah, it snaps up a smaller percentage of white people also. So what? You think the powers that be want white trash any more than they want blacks in their neighborhhod? In the process they destroyed the once very strong black family unit. That actually surprises me a bit. Blacks had, at one time, a very strong family unit culture. The replacement of the black father by the "Great White father" has done more than anything to destroy the futures of children.

The policies in fact are not "failed" but are wildly successful in doing exactly what was intended.

The low level jobs formerly held by black people have been filled by illegal aliens who have no rights at all and are forced to work because they receive no benefits. It is perhaps the most damning evidence...people who do not receive these benfits are willing "to do work Americans won't do" and people that do receive them are unemployed at the highest rate in the nation.

Like I said, it is mathmatical. And was entirely predictable when it was established, And to top it off, if you disagree with the policies, you get called a "racist"

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Yes because we all know folks love to hire black people.

They're about as likely to hire an equally qualified black guy with a clean background as they are to hire a white convict. They're also more likely to call an applicant with a name that suggests the applicant is white than one where the name suggest the applicant is black. That type of institutional racism - which is very much alive - may have a lot to do with the high unemployment rates in that segment of the population.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

However, the real problem and one that no politician is going to touch, is that an economy based on exponential growth is done, over, finished. You can't create good jobs out of thin air. The US economy has always been based on a relatively small number of people benefiting from the exploitation a vast supply of readily available natural resources. These conditions no longer exist. The economy will have to evolve to something quite different. it's going to hurt one way or another.

Only if we accept the current system

For example. Eliminate income tax. Eliminate corporate tax. ALL. Eliminate ALL corporate tax. Corporations do not pay tax, they collect tax. Stop it.

The jobs that ran away from here will come back, the US will become THE place for manufacturing. Detroit WAS the richest city in the world (per capita) in 1950. It can be again. Didn;t work in Ireland? Of course not. Ireland has no infrastructure and logisitics, no raw materials. It is like saying you cannot sell a footlong sandwich for a $1 but neglecting that the sandwich was made of sh*t.

The US has huge resources, logisitcs, distribution, transportation...the BEST in the world. Eliminate the TAX (2nd highest in the world) paid by corporations and collected from their customers...and everyone in the US will need three jobs to keep up with demand.

Implement the FAIR TAX and the whole future of possibilities for everyone changes.

Plus you get rid of any possibility that Republicans in the IRS will abuse their power and discrimiante against DEmocratic organizations applying for tax exempt status. No taxes, no tax exemptions! Another problem eliminated.

Or we can just go with that you say... "We CAN'T" "It's OVER" "Black people will never have jobs because they CAN'T"

Bullsh*t

Edited August 3, 2013 by Gary and Alla