What You Need to Know About the State of Urban Jobs!

story by the National Urban League

NUL’s State of Urban Jobs site at iamempowered.com gives you everything you need to know about jobs including the monthly employment report with stats for Blacks, Whites and Latinos, the National Urban League’s position on employment and job creation policy, the facts about how investing in job creation is the best strategy for reducing the deficit, as well as resume writing tips and job listings. Click this link http://www.iamempowered.com/state-urban-jobs to view and stay abreast of the latest developments.

Join Dr. Valerie Rawlston Wilson today, April 1, 2011 from 2:00pm-3:00pm ET for a live online web chat about the March 2011 Employment report and The State of Black America 2011, Jobs Rebuild America: Putting Urban America Back to Work on http://www.iamempowered.com/article/2011/03/30/join-online-chat-about-jobs-friday-april-1st-2pm

Highlights of the March 2011 Employment Report:

The economy gained 216,000 jobs in March while private sector employment (excludes government losses) increased by 230,000. Together with last month’s revised numbers of 194,000 net total job growth and 240,000 net private jobs, this represents the fastest two month pace since before the recession. The number of unemployed people in March declined to 13.5 million, while the labor force participation rate was unchanged.

The largest private sector job growth occurred in professional and business services (+78,000), education and health (+45,000; 36,600 in health care alone), and leisure and hospitality (+37,000). Most losses were concentrated in government , with local governments shedding 15,000 jobs in March.

The unemployment rate changed little – now 8.8% (from 8.9% in February). The black unemployment rate increased slightly to 15.5%(from 15.3%) – the unemployment rate for black men was up to 16.8% (from 16.2%); for black women, down to 12.5% (from 13.0%). The unemployment rate for whites was 7.9% (from 8.0%) while the Hispanic rate was 11.3% (from 11.6%). Rates of teen unemployment were 21.6% for whites (from 21.3%), 42.1% for African-Americans (from 38.4%) and 31.9% for Latinos (from 30.6%). The rate of underemployment (including the unemployed, marginally attached and those working part-time for economic reasons) was 15.7% (from 15.9%).

The ranks of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more) has been trending up since September 2010 – now at 6.1 million (from 6.0 million) or 45.5% of all unemployed.

The March 2011 Employment report is available at the State of Urban Jobs website: http://www.iamempowered.com/state-urban-jobs