High unemployment rates are believed to be an exaggeration according to Milwuakee Magazine. (Milwaukee: fit in, college)

[green_mariner]

I found a magazine article online from the Milwaukee Magazine:Exaggerating Black Male Unemployment - Murphy's Law - Milwaukee Magazine.

According to this article, the African-American unemployment rate is believed to be lower than many would think. I haven't been to Milwaukee since 1992 so I don't know. All I have heard is that there is some kind of discrimination in the labor market and that the unemployment rate among African-Americans is around 43%. That is all I have heard. This magazine seems to dispute this. What do you think and/or know?

[Concrete]

Well looking at the study reference in the article the percentage of 50-60% is showed by the magazine article to not be calculated using the officially recognized "unemployment" the author even responds by saying he used a different term -- "jobless" which takes into account different criteria.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Concrete

Well looking at the study reference in the article the percentage of 50-60% is showed by the magazine article to not be calculated using the officially recognized "unemployment" the author even responds by saying he used a different term -- "jobless" which takes into account different criteria.

This is all quite confusing. I think about this because when I read an article from the Journal-Sentinel, it told of high unemployment rates among African-Americans in Milwaukee, among the highest in the nation. I have also heard of something called "Black Brain Drain" from Milwaukee. I thought "as a person who is seeking a college degree, if I get this degree, would I still have a hard time getting a job?". I am aware of the effects of factory jobs leaving Milwaukee.

[Nuclear_Art]

I think the study is confusing because from straight unemployment figures you can start to make some some assumptions on the causes of that unemployment. Those causes could be discrimination or they could be education or lack of resources for African American job seekers. But the study also takes into account people "not in the labor force" as a subset of "jobless" individuals without defining what that means and how it applies to that subset. How big of a percentage is that subset? Where do they fit into his conclusions as opposed to those who are unemployed?

Levine appears to try make a comprehensive analysis of people in this jobless group for the entire metro area. I don't think the statistical sources he uses are good sources for what he is trying to determine. Although it would be a lot of work he probably should do random sampling to get a better idea of more accurate percentages of jobless vs unemployed. If his assertions are correct a more rigorous method of statistical analysis would reveal that fact. On the other hand it does seem that he is just pulling statistics from various sources to validate a preformed conclusion which is not good scientific rigor.

[Nuclear_Art]

Here are some basic statistical information that I dig up over the last few minutes.

Just a quick calculation based on the figures from this page:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat3.txt (broken link)

For the entire country, men aged 16 & over and for 2009.

35% of men are jobless
5% black men are jobless
28% white men are jobless

In Milwaukee County, blacks are 25% of the population. For metro Milwaukee the number is much lower and I couldn't find a statistic for that percentage.

For a quick graphic showing the factors that affect joblessness, check this out.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Nuclear_Art

Here are some basic statistical information that I dig up over the last few minutes.

Just a quick calculation based on the figures from this page:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat3.txt (broken link)

For the entire country, men aged 16 & over and for 2009.

35% of men are jobless
5% black men are jobless
28% white men are jobless

In Milwaukee County, blacks are 25% of the population. For metro Milwaukee the number is much lower and I couldn't find a statistic for that percentage.

For a quick graphic showing the factors that affect joblessness, check this out.

I took a look at it. It was broken down by age group. I think some of the numbers are a bit off.

[Nuclear_Art]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I took a look at it. It was broken down by age group. I think some of the numbers are a bit off.

Some of the numbers from the BLS? I doubt it. That's probably as accurate as anyone is going to get.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Nuclear_Art

Some of the numbers from the BLS? I doubt it. That's probably as accurate as anyone is going to get.

I was talking about the calculations.

[Nuclear_Art]

I did take the figures for 16 & over which includes over 65. It was just a quick calc and is not a complete correlation to Levine's study but is within the standard deviation. 65 & older are a small percentage and don't really affect the numbers much so to include them doesn't skew the figures a lot. But regardless, I compared the same figures across the board.

[wheel123]

i ant speak for blacks,. but i will say i personally know lots of whites who lost jobs in this recession