(October 5, 2011) More than 100 unemployed and underemployed workers were joined by hundreds of supporters as they spoke out on crumbling bridges, run down schools, and jobless at-risk youth during the American Dream Movement Rally to ?Demand Jobs Not Cuts.? - Washington, DC - Photo by David Sachs / SEIU
(October 5, 2011) More than 100 unemployed and underemployed workers were joined by hundreds of supporters as they spoke out on crumbling bridges, run down schools, and jobless at-risk youth during the American Dream Movement Rally to ?Demand Jobs Not Cuts.? - Washington, DC - Photo by David Sachs / SEIU

We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.

Unsubscribe any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Another month, another sign that the economy isn’t improving: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the unemployment rate—-9.1 percent—-is unchanged, and about 103,000 jobs were added to the economy last month. In a timely move, The Root D.C. went over to Ward 8, where unemployment is at 20 percent, to talk to some skilled laborers who can’t find jobs, including 53-year-old Tyrone Jackson:

By trade I’m an electrician. I’ve always wanted to be one. Yup. And I can’t get a job in D.C.

Sometimes, I just go down to the work sites and check out these people who are working. I see 20 or 30 electricians coming out and none of them look like me. It’s been terrible, as far as this working relationship goes with Washington, D.C.

All I see is cranes in this city: They’ve got cranes on 7th street. They’ve got cranes all up and down on 14th street. All these cranes in this city and I ain’t working.

I started in 1983. I’m 53 years old and I don’t have a pension. Nothing. It’s been terrible. It really has. Even my own union can’t help find me work. They tell me there’s nothing we can do. I never thought it would be like this. I never did. It’s always excuse after excuse after excuse.

Statistics show that the longer a person is unemployed, the harder it is for them to get a job. In some cases, that’s because their skills are eroding. But, in others, it’s because unemployment, even in this economy, is considered by employers to be a personal failing. And for many African Americans who never actually recovered from the early-2000s recession, long-term unemployment has been a part of the picture since before 2008.

While economists and politicians fret over 9.1 percent employment nationwide, unemployment for blacks has only dropped below nine percent a handful of times since employment statistics started being recorded. Compound that with racial bias—-yes, it still exists—-and all of these things add up to a dire employment situation for black Americans.

Photo by the SEIU via Flickr / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License