In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap

[kwassa]

posted here because it is a little too old for LBN

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?em

December 1, 2009
In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap
By MICHAEL LUO

That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.

But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

Various academic studies have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time than whites. A study published several years ago in The American Economic Review titled “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” found that applicants with black-sounding names received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.

A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.

The discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings.

[kwassa]

1. Does anyone else care about this issue besides me?

I think it is important to recognize that racism hasn't suddenly ended simply because Obama has been elected President, and that black professionals are hitting a racial barrier that should be long gone.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Kick and Rec. We care

[Brewman_Jax]

2. Not only in the job market

I've heard from my friends that are black of the struggles to get a small business loan. One guy said that it would have been easier to get a loan to buy a Lexus than getting a small business loan. :(

[AspenRose]

4. POSTRACIAL AMERICA!!!!

Not.

And what exactly does this mean:

"A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did."

(It's a rhetorical question.)

K&R

[NikolaC]

5. K&R