This might be fine if black workers ended up in jobs that didn’t require a degree but did pay well. But since 2003, it has been less and less likely that grads in jobs that don’t need a degree were in high-paid ones making at least $45,000, and the drop off has been worst for black graduates, down 6.2 percentage points, and recent black graduates, down 8.2 percentage points. At the same time, more and more graduates have ended up in low-wage jobs that pay less than $25,000 a year, but recent black graduates saw the largest increase — 8 percentage points.
The economy is heavily tilted against black people. In a study of entry-level job openings, equally qualified black job applicants were half as likely as white ones to get a call back or an offer. Jobs that drug test are more likely to hire black workers because without the tests, they assume black applicants use drugs. While black workers make up 32 percent of the workforce, they make up 42 percent of minimum wage workers.
Black women have been particularly dogged in recent years in graduating college: they made up two-thirds of all black students who finished a Bachelor’s Degree in 2010 and 71 percent with a Master’s. But they still struggle in other ways: when they’re working full-time, year-round, they make 64 percent of what white men make and less than both white women and black men.
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4124