http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/12/w****s_without_high_school_dip.html
W****s without high school diploma more likely to have jobs than b****s with some college, newspaper reports
Since the recession, recent black college graduates have struggled to find jobs at higher rates than their white classmates, the New York Times reports. (JOHN McCUSKER, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Young black college graduates in the United States are over 7 percent more likely to be unemployed than white graduates, a gap that has grown substantially since before the recession, according to the New York Times.
Drawing on a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Times noted that black college grads ages 22 to 27 experienced a 12.4 percent jobless rate, compared to 4.9 percent for w****s. In 2007, by contrast, 4.6 percent of recent black graduates were out of work compared with 3.2 percent of w****s, accounting for a difference of just 1.4 percentage points.
Perhaps more strikingly, the report found that the unemployment rate in 2013 was higher for b****s who attended some college (10.5 percent) than it was for w****s who never graduated from high school (9.7 percent), the Times reported.
Read the full story in the New York Times here.
For Recent Black College Graduates, a Tougher Road to Employment
By PATRICIA COHENDEC. 24, 2014
William Zonicle did what all the job experts advise. He majored in a growing field like health care. He studied hard and took time to develop relationships with his professors. Most important, he obtained a great internship in the human resources department at Florida Hospital in Tampa the summer before his senior year.
But more than seven months after receiving his diploma from Oakwood University, a historically black religious school in Huntsville, Ala., Mr. Zonicle is still without a job in his field. Instead, he is working part-time for $7.60 an hour at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in the center of town.
It was tougher than I expected, said Mr. Zonicle, 23, who applied for jobs at hospitals and nursing homes from Ohio to Florida after graduating in May. Because of the work I had put in as an undergraduate, and making connections, I thought it would be easier to find a decent position.
College graduates have survived both the recession and ho-hum recovery far better than those without a degree, but b****s who finished four years of college are suffering from unemployment rates that are painfully high compared with their white counterparts.
Photo
Garrick Ewers, who graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta this spring, is continuing his search for work in marketing.Credit Bryan Meltz for The New York Times
Among recent graduates ages 22 to 27, the jobless rate for b****s last year was 12.4 percent versus 4.9 percent for w****s, said John Schmitt, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
While there has always been a gap between black and white college grads, this 7.5 percentage point difference was far greater than before the recession burned through the economy. In 2007, for example, there was only a 1.4 percentage point difference, with 4.6 percent of recent black graduates out of work compared with 3.2 percent of similarly educated w****s.
This is very different from the past, said Mr. Schmitt, a co-author of a study of employment among recent graduates published by the center. Youd have to go back to the early 1980s recession to see that pattern.
Historically, the periods during and immediately after downturns have been harder on b****s than on w****s. But in this current cycle, the trend has been even more extreme.
Continue reading the main story
Younger workers absorbed the brunt of job losses during the Great Recession, so black college graduates, also subject to persistent racial discrimination despite advances in civil rights, suffered from a double disadvantage, the report concluded.
Although the numbers of w****s, b****s and Latinos graduating from college have surged in recent years, the number of black graduates is still relatively small. Of the 1.9 million college graduates ages 22 to 27 who were unemployed in 2013, 57,000 were black.
Politicians, economists and business leaders are united in the view that despite staggering tuition and fees at many institutions, college is worth the cost.
And it still is, despite the significant hit college graduates have taken in recent years. Particularly when considering the alternatives.
The unemployment rate for college graduates in November, for example, was down to 3.2 percent, compared with 5.6 percent for those with a high school diploma and 8.5 percent among those with less education. College graduates earned roughly twice as much last year as those without a degree.
Continue reading the main story
I would never say to anyone they shouldnt get a college education, said William A. Darity Jr., an economist at Duke University. Theres no doubt that having a college education improves the relative situation of any b***k A******n compared with any other b***k A******n.
But it does not significantly reduce racial disparity, he added. Weve got to do something else to really have an effect on that.
In fact, the unemployment rate in 2013 was lower among w****s who never finished high school (9.7 percent) than it was for b****s with some college education (10.5 percent).
Black graduates are suffering from a version of last hired, first fired, Mr. Darity said. The effects of discrimination are blunted when the work force is expanding, but in harder times minorities are much more vulnerable, he said.
A new report from the Century Foundation found that regardless of education, age or job, b****s continue to be almost twice as likely as w****s to be unemployed.
For many recent black graduates, the benefits of a college education havent yet lived up to the promise. Im just surprised I havent gotten any job, said Garrick Ewers, 22, a business administration major who donned a cap and gown this spring at Morehouse College, a historically black mens college in Atlanta.
Mr. Ewers, who would like to work in marketing, applied to Google, Apple, BET, MTV and Amazon, among others.
When those didnt come through, he looked at picking up some work nearby as a cashier or a waiter. Im applying for jobs I know Im overqualified for, he said, and I havent even been getting those.
He took a job a couple of weeks ago at a video store near his home for $8.50 an hour.
Many of his classmates are having similar problems, said Mr. Ewers, who moved back home after graduation. My parents have been very helpful, but I know theyre getting s**k of it, he said.
The unemployment gap between black and white college graduates narrows as people grow older. Last year it was 3.5 percent for w****s, versus 5.7 percent for b****s. But the delay in finding a job can reverberate years down the road, reducing wages over a lifetime.
Christopher Broughton, a business administration major in Mr. Ewerss class at Morehouse, was an intern at Adobe Systems in San Francisco the previous summer, but the hoped-for job after graduation never came through.
Over the summer, Mr. Broughton, 22, said he sent at least 70 applications to large and small firms, using LinkedIn and online research. In October, he finally landed a job in Atlanta with Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate brokerage firm.
Mr. Zonicle, the Oakwood graduate, searched for jobs at hospitals, medical centers and nursing homes in the Huntsville area and throughout Florida.
Following up on leads he learned of through the business administration department at his college, he also sent his résumé to hospitals in Ohio and Atlanta, explaining that he would be happy to relocate.
Most of the applications were filed online, he said, and he never heard back, let alone got a chance to find out why he was not selected.
So with his part-time low-wage job at Barnes & Noble, Mr. Zonicle can now count himself among the 56 percent of recent black college graduates who are considered to be underemployed or working in jobs that dont require a degree. That figure was up from about 45 percent before the recession, according to the report by the economic and policy research center.
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Even degrees in science, technology, engineering and math so-called STEM fields where the demand is high have not immunized recent black graduates against job search difficulty. From 2010 to 2012, the average unemployment rate among young black engineers was 10 percent, the center reported, while the underemployment rate was 32 percent.
The evidence suggests that black graduates, with fewer resources to fall back on, are even more aggressive than w****s in pursuing a job. But that hasnt been enough to overcome obstacles.
I had disappointing times before, Mr. Zonicle said, but when youre expecting and hoping for something to come through and it doesnt, its hard.
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