The Black Perspective

Berkeley — A new report by the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education finds that throughout 2011, Black worker unemployment remained in the 15 to 16 percent range, while unemployment for the rest of the workforce dropped below 9 percent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The jobs recovery gathered pace as a measure of private-sector hiring surged in December and claims forunemployment benefits fell, suggesting the battered labor marketmay continue to strengthen in 2012.

The ADP National Employment Report's December job tally of 325,000 surprised economists who had expected a gain of roughly half that size. It was also above the 204,000 private jobs added in November.

Black Unemployment Rate Was 13.6% in January 2012, a decline from 15.8% in December 2011.

According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center the unemployment rate for Blacks was 13.6 percent last month.* This is according to the latest report on the nation’s employment situation released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly Employment Situation report. This rate was a sharp decrease from December, when unemployment in the Black community stood at 15.8 percent.

As financial services professionals, we must understand the broader landscape of socio-economic trends in our country. The recession and economic upheaval of the last few years has illuminated the significance of small business owners in the U.S. Their economic impact has manifested in the American economy in several ways.