The “seasonally adjusted” official unemployment rate for African-American male workers in the United States over the age of 20 jumped from 12.1 to 13.4 percent between November and December 2008, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data--following the election of Barack Obama as the militaristic U.S. white corporate power structure’s new Commander-in-Chief and another Democratic Party-controlled U.S. Congress.
In addition, the official jobless rate for African-American youth between 16 and 19 years old in the United States increased from 32.2 to 33.7 percent, while the unemployment rate for white youth increased from 18.4 to 18.7 percent. The official jobless rate for Hispanic or Latino workers in the United States also increased from 8.6 to 9.2 percent between November and December 2008.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also summarized the December 2008 employment situation in the United States for all U.S. workers in the following way in its January 9, 2009 press release:
“Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent…Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008. In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors…
“In December, the number of unemployed persons increased by 632,000 to 11.1 million and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points…
“The unemployment rates for adult men (7.2 percent), adult women (5.9 percent), and whites (6.6 percent) increased in December…
“Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 315,000 to 6.5 million in December. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.7 million…The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 2.6 million in December and was up by 1.3 million in 2008…”
Yet despite the continued high rate of joblessness in the United States in 2009, the Democratic Party-controlled Congress is apparently still unwilling to finally cut off all funding for the Pentagon’s war machine in Iraq and Afghanistan and all funding for U.S. military aid to all foreign governments in the Middle East.
Nor is the militaristic U.S. white corporate power structure’s new Commander-in-Chief apparently yet willing to secure more funds for a U.S. public works job program by immediately ordering all Pentagon troops and U.S. private contractor troops to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan by February 1, 2009—despite his 2008 “anti-war” campaign rhetoric.
James and the Twenty-Seven Bicycles
14 years ago
