Study Says African Americans Are Poorer Today Than 5 Years Ago
A study conducted to review the progress African Americans have had in the past years has revealed that more black Americans are likely to be unemployed in the past two years than they were in 2013.
Researchers from Lending Tree, a well-known website for borrowers and lenders, learned that the unemployment rate among the black community still falls behind the white community. Although the unemployment rate fell among the black community, the poverty level has higher.
“I don’t want to get political here, but I would hope that this report would color how people view the approaches that the parties and candidates take toward legislative and social issues, and how those things are framed,” LendingTree Lead Researcher Kali McFadden while speaking to NNPA Newswire.
According to the U.S. Bureau Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among black people is 5.5%, while that of the entire American community is at 3.6%. The statistics also show that the total number of black-owned businesses account for only 34%.
The findings of the report showed that the black community is trailing behind in almost all areas. The key areas include homeownership, median household income, and unemployment.
By Victor Omondi
A study conducted to review the progress African Americans have had in the past years has revealed that more black Americans are likely to be unemployed in the past two years than they were in 2013.
Researchers from Lending Tree, a well-known website for borrowers and lenders, learned that the unemployment rate among the black community still falls behind the white community. Although the unemployment rate fell among the black community, the poverty level has higher.
“I don’t want to get political here, but I would hope that this report would color how people view the approaches that the parties and candidates take toward legislative and social issues, and how those things are framed,” LendingTree Lead Researcher Kali McFadden while speaking to NNPA Newswire.
According to the U.S. Bureau Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among black people is 5.5%, while that of the entire American community is at 3.6%. The statistics also show that the total number of black-owned businesses account for only 34%.
The findings of the report showed that the black community is trailing behind in almost all areas. The key areas include homeownership, median household income, and unemployment.
Even though the black community has displayed an improvement in almost all these measures, they are still being outmatched. They have had a drop in the unemployment rates, increase percent household income, increased education without much of an effect on their economic status.
“In almost every metric we examined, African Americans realized slower growth than the country as a whole, but they did outpace their peers when it comes to higher education,” said McFadden.
The most striking from the findings is the fact that the black community has nearly closed the education gap between them and the whole U.S community. However, this has still not translated to a higher living standard or equal statistics with their counterparts.
“The education findings to me really were the most striking, the most disheartening and frightening,” McFadden lamented. “You know, we’d really hope that education would create a more even playing field and the fact that African Americans are exceeding the growth rate in higher education degrees shows a lot of things. It shows achievement, and it shows that families are directing their children, and it shows a lot of groundswell for entering the professional working world.”
McFadden further expressed her grief over the fact that most of the economic indicators are not reflecting this improvement in the level of education among the black community. She termed the study findings as “depressing for African Americans.”