The overall unemployment rate in the country dipped to 6.7 percent in December, the lowest for 2013, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. But for Black teens, ages 16-19 it remained at an abysmal seasonally adjusted rate of 35.5 percent.
Staggering stats
For Chicago, the city with the third largest U.S. population and second largest number of Blacks, the outlook is bleaker. The ‘Windy City’ has the dubious distinction of reporting 92 percent of all Black male teens; ages 16-19 were jobless in 2012. Chicago Alternative Schools Network released a 14-page report mid-January that laid out the grim statistics.
The overall number of employed Black teens went from 58,281 in 2006 to 55,697 in 2012, Jack Wuest, executive director of Alternative Schools Network told The Final Call. For Black male teens, it fell from 27,891 to 26,493 for the same time period he said. These young men face an ongoing battle across the country but those in Chicago have the most depressed state of employment with rates that have continued to drop each year noted the report. If they are poor, the news is even worse.
“For Black males $20,000 and under income, it was 4.5 percent which means 95 percent were jobless, and that’s for the entire year (2012),” said Mr. Wuest. Figures for the report were compiled from 2012 Community Survey results from the U.S. Census and tabulated by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.