July 11, 2006
June Data Confirms Hispanic/Black Employment Divide
According to MSM economic pundits,
June’s employment report was disappointing. Payrolls
expanded by 121,000 positions. That was better than May,
but below the 175,000 predicted by economists—and far
below the 390,000 projected by a private employment
survey conducted by Automatic Data Processing (ADP.)
In fact, the June numbers were not
nearly as weak as portrayed. The government’s Household
Survey showed job growth of 387,000, remarkably close to
the private forecast. And, as we have often
demonstrated, Hispanics garnered an
above average share of the new positions.
Of course the divergence between
the two surveys is doubtless the result of the
“off the books” nature of much Hispanic
employment.
Just look at the number and percent
increase in jobs for June:
Blacks were the only group to
suffer job losses in June, with the biggest hit
(surprise, surprise!) taken by
Black teenagers, whose
unemployment rate soared to 27.8 percent from 25.0
percent in May.
To be sure, the Hispanic
unemployment rate also increased in June – to 5.3
percent from May’s 5.0 percent. Unlike Blacks, however,
Hispanics flooded into the labor force in June, their
higher labor force participation rate apparently
signaling increased confidence in future job prospects.
Black labor force participation declined, albeit not by
enough to offset their job losses – so their
unemployment rate still rose.
[Vdare.com
Note: As many readers know, "Black," "White," and
"Hispanic" are not
mutually exclusive categories.
Hispanic is an
ethnicity, not a race, and the
Household Survey does not distinguish between
non-Hispanic and Hispanic Blacks. Nevertheless, the
yawning chasm between Hispanic and Black employment
trends can only be explained by the vastly different
experiences of U.S.-born, largely non-Hispanic, Black
workers and their predominantly foreign-born
Hispanic counterparts.]
A few days before the June report’s
release, the left of center
Economic Policy Institute noted the growing "racial
income gap" between African-Americans and Whites.
"In 1995, the median
income of African-American families was 60.9% of that of
white families (in 2004 dollars: $31,966 versus
$52,492). By 2000, when the unemployment rate fell to
4.0%, the ratio was 63.5% (still a very large income
gap: $36,939 versus $58,167 in 2004 dollars), the
highest level on record, going back to 1947.
[VDARE.COM
Emphasis]
"But……the racial gap widened by 2004 (most recent
data) as a result of the recession and the jobless
recovery that followed…… This finding suggests that
unless the very favorable labor market conditions of the
latter 1990s return and are maintained, racial income
gaps are likely to widen further." Record, going back to
1947. [Snapshot for July 5, 2006.
Weaker job market re-opens racial income gap by
Jared Bernstein]
Our analysis "suggests"
something else: Immigration was the culprit. If
immigration remains at its present level, Blacks will
continue to lose ground even if the
"favorable economic conditions" of the late
1990s were to re-materialize.
The
displacement of non-Hispanic workers by Hispanics
since the start of the Bush Administration is
tracked by the VDARE.com American Worker Displacement
Index.
The navy blue line is Hispanic job
growth, pink is non-Hispanic, and yellow is the ratio of
Hispanic to non-Hispanic (VDAWDI)
From the January 2001 through June
2006:
