Do Blacks with Degrees Achieve the American Dream In Macomb County?

A NATIONAL STUDY BEGS TO DIFFER


Study: High jobless rate for blacks with degrees

Russell Contreras/ Associated Press

Boston — The economic downturn has erased the gains made by the black middle class over the past 30 years as the unemployment rate of blacks with a four-year college degree has skyrocketed, according to a new study by the National Urban League Policy Institute released Wednesday.

The study said that the unemployment rate for blacks with a four-year college degree has tripled from 1992 while overall black unemployment levels are nearing 1982 levels when it was close to 20 percent.

The unemployment rate for blacks with a four-year college degree was 6.5 percent in 2010 compared to 2.9 percent of whites with college degrees, the study said.

The report, released just as the National Urban League begins its annual conference in Boston, mirrors similar studies by the Economic Policy Institute and the Pew Research Center, which says the economic meltdown in recent years has hit black households hard. Like the previous studies, the Urban League report said black home ownership fell sharply in recent years due to the mortgage crisis and affected overall black median income.

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said the report showed that the recession affected the middle class, not just poor and working class African Americans as some might assume. The National Urban League Policy Institute used U.S. Census and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"These are people who played by the rules. They built wealth, went to college and had good jobs," Morial said. "But in a short period of time, they've fallen back."

We want to know....Is there a recession within the recession?  Or is it a case of every man for himself?  How does this play out in Macomb County?  

We will ask John Bierbusse and get back to you.