The Black unemployment rate for May and June 2011 was 16.2 percent and for Latinos 11.9 percent. Those numbers represent a disproportionately high and catastrophic outcome to the economic and social well-being and progress of these communities. The trauma spreads in ways that are underreported, not reported at all, or not reported in a way that directly connects the dots to high joblessness. 



How are these communities effected by the high degree of unemployment and what needs to happen to reduce the high rates? For answers, BBN turned to Dr. Steven Pitts, Labor Policy Specialist with The Center for Labor Research and Education at UC Berkeley. 



BBN: What are some of the social, economic and psychological effects on a community that suffers from the degree of unemployment Black and Latino communities are experiencing? 



SP: The official Black unemployment rate now is higher than it was when the recession ended in June 2009. This prolonged period of severe joblessness means that typical living standards in our community will continue to be far below what most would consider decent. Families will make do by making poorer food choices; forsake preventative health care measures; deplete saving accounts; fall behind on mortgages and lose homes; and postpone higher education. 
In addition, segments of our community will go through psychological trauma, increasing the level of self-medication as a coping strategy and increasing the number of abusive relationships within families. 



BBN: What strategies and steps are needed to reduce the unemployment rate in these communities? 



SP: There are two elements of this unemployment crisis:

• The racial dimension whereby the official Black unemployment rate is twice that of whites; and

• The overall labor market failure whereby few workers of any color are doing well. Therefore, efforts to address the racial dimension must be combined with efforts to address the overall labor market failure.

So a positive program to address the unemployment crisis would include: 



• The expansion of federal government spending to achieve full employment 



• Targeted job training programs to link the unemployed into sectors such as health care



• The establishment of community-based institutions to monitor (and fight) racial discrimination in hiring

• The use of federal funds to address the budget crisis at the state and local government level. In absence of this, more state and local government workers – who are disproportionately Black – will be laid off.

"Black Employment and Unemployment" is produced monthly by Sylvia Allegretto, Ary Amerikaner and Steven Pitts, at the The Center for Labor Research and Education at UC Berkeley. For more information visit the Labor Center at Berkeley. And read the Data Brief: Black Employment and Unemployment for June 2011.