After soaring above 16 percent for two consecutive months, the unemployment rate for the nation's African American population finally started to decline last month.
According to a Labor Department report released Friday, Black joblessness stood at 15.8 percent in February - down from 16.5 percent in January.
The numbers translate into a government estimated 2,812,000 African Americans who were looking for work in February but were unable to find it. This compares to 2,929,000 unemployed Blacks in January.
Overall, the economy loss 36,000 jobs and produced a national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent last month - the same as in January. Among whites, joblessness stood at 8.8 percent in February - up slightly from 8.7 percent in January.
Meanwhile, Hispanics also saw their unemployment rate decline slightly - 12.4 percent in February compared to 12.6 percent in January.
Analysts generally did not see clear trends in Friday's report but one T. Rowe Price expert said the report showed "the economy is healing" from the job-destroying "great recession" which has gripped the nation since December 2007.
Source: St. Louis American
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