Unemployment For Blacks: A New Great Depression

It won't surprise many to learn that the weighty toll of joblessness falls unequally on Americans, or that blacks and Latinos are unemployed at rates that far exceed those for whites.

But new figures from the Economic Policy Institute illustrate these inequities with jaw-dropping clarity. According to the report "Downcast Unemployment Forecast":

- We can expect that by the third quarter of this year, 17.2 percent of blacks will be unemployed, though in Alabama and Illinois the numbers are projected to reach 20 percent. This, says Kai Filion, author of the report, will contribute to a staggering 50 percent poverty rate for African American children.

- In California, unemployment among Latinos is projected to reach 17.6 percent.

"There is no reason why we should tolerate such outcomes," said Filion, a policy analyst at the Institute. "Elected officials can and must put millions of Americans back to work with bold, targeted job creation policies."

Unemployment nationally is at a 25-year high, averaging around 10 percent. But Filion's point is that this figure encompasses a huge range of realities. At the low end, only 3.3 percent of white North Dakotans are without work, compared 27 percent of African Americans in Michigan. (That is higher than the national unemployment rate that prevailed during the Great Depression.)

With all this in mind, the hope for solid, sustainable green jobs means even more -- and the mounting disappointment surrounding realization of that promise is becoming even starker. Stay tuned.