By Kenrya Rankin

ColorLines, Aril 7, 2017 —

It’s still nearly double the national rate.

A New York Labor Department office is viewed in Manhattan on March 6, 2015, in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Image

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly Employment Situation Summary today (April 6), which boasts that the nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.5 percent.

That means there are a total of 7.2 million people who are out of work, versus 7.5 million last month.

It also showed that the economy only added 98,000 jobs—a major drop off from February’s gain of 219,000 positions.

But the unemployment rate for Blacks is still nearly twice that of the national one.

At 8 percent, there are 1.6 million Black people looking for viable work in this country. The rate for Whites is half that (3.9 percent). It’s 5.1 for Latinxs and 3.3 for Asian Americans. Rates for Native Americans are not published in this report.

 

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