Twin Cities jobless gap worst in nation

Twin Cities jobless gap worst in nation

Randy Furst
Minneapolis Star Tribune
March 25, 2011

Audra Robinson has worked only intermittently since 2009 and hasn't worked at all since September.

Robinson, 39, is no slouch. The Brooklyn Park woman has a bachelor's degree in marketing from Concordia University, where she graduated magna cum laude.

But Robinson is black, and statistically that makes it harder for her to find work than for Twin Citians who are white.

Even as the economy shows signs it could be climbing out of its recession, black Americans face far bleaker prospects of getting back into the workforce than their white counterparts. Unfortunately for Robinson, nowhere in America is the disparity between black and white unemployment greater than in Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

Newly released figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics place Minnesota's 2010 black jobless rate at 22 percent. That's 3.4 times the white rate of 6.4 percent, giving the state the largest gap in the country.

A 2009 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that among 18 of the largest metro areas, the Twin Cities had the biggest gap between white and black unemployment. The state's black population is concentrated in the Twin Cities.

Robinson remains undaunted in her job-hunting efforts. "I personally believe in the American dream no matter how many times I have been disappointed." Still, she would like to see "greater effort to figure out how to make diversity not just a statement but a true commitment."

The employment gap between blacks and whites is a distinction demographers and other experts in the state have watched for years. But identifying all the reasons and finding solutions has been elusive.

While other minority groups also have higher unemployment, studies that identified the Twin Cities as the place with the greatest disparity focused on black unemployment. Experts cite a combination of factors making it harder for black Minnesotans to compete for jobs.

The state's black population is five years younger on average than the black population nationally, and unemployment is higher among younger people. White Twin Citians are more educated than counterparts in most other metro areas, while black Twin Citians are somewhat less educated than blacks elsewhere.

Some experts say the employment gap may be fueled in part by another disparity: Fewer white Minnesotans have criminal records than whites nationally, while the opposite is true for black Minnesotans. The disparity between blacks and whites on that score is four times higher in the state than for the country as a whole. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and others say racial profiling accounts for much of that.

In the black community, some express doubts about whether the concept of equal opportunity remains on the radar of some Minnesota employers.

"I think Minnesotans like to believe they are good people," said Shawn Lewis, board member of the St. Paul Foundation's Pan African Community Endowment. "They like to believe they are progressive people, that they don't have any biases, that they treat people fairly. In reality, that is not the situation."

Some blacks say they lack connections that might land them a job in a slowly recovering economy.

"It's not what you know, but who you know," said Jacqueline Brown, 51, laid off in 2008 as a supervisor for a medical facility. "There aren't enough blacks in hiring positions, in human resources, so blacks don't have an equal chance of getting a job," she said.

It is interesting that one of the most liberal cities in this country should have this record on employment disparity.

dblboggie wrote:It is interesting that one of the most liberal cities in this country should have this record on employment disparity.

Yep. I was reading the comment on the story by readers and one guy said just that. He said racism isn't a right wing thing as much as liberals would like to make it out to be. I mean seriously, Minneapolis and St. Paul are very, very liberal.... complete with mayors being left wing. Many of the states most liberal politicians are from that area... state and federal politicians.

What's even more funny is how conservative small town Minnesota is. But without the population to compete with the Twin Cities to vote these people out, it stands as a liberal state.

TexasBlue wrote:

dblboggie wrote:It is interesting that one of the most liberal cities in this country should have this record on employment disparity.

Yep. I was reading the comment on the story by readers and one guy said just that. He said racism isn't a right wing thing as much as liberals would like to make it out to be. I mean seriously, Minneapolis and St. Paul are very, very liberal.... complete with mayors being left wing. Many of the states most liberal politicians are from that area... state and federal politicians.

What's even more funny is how conservative small town Minnesota is. But without the population to compete with the Twin Cities to vote these people out, it stands as a liberal state.

When you consider the devastation that Johnson's "Great Society" and "War on Poverty" programs visited upon black Americans, you begin to understand just how pernicious the "good intentions" of liberals can be.

It seems that liberals never think about the incentives their "good intentions" create - they just "feel" better about doing what they think is the right thing to do - damn the consequences.