U.S. employers who have cut jobs over the past year are in no hurry to start hiring again just because the recession is ending. What this means is African-Americans will continue to have problems getting jobs. This is what happened the last time we had a jobless recovery in 2002-2003. African-American jobless rate continued to be higher than for the average US population.
Small business owners, who mostly employ minorities and low-wage earners, say they need to see several months of rising sales before they start adding staff. After all, businesses in this recession have managed to produce just as much with fewer workers.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell in July for the first time in 15 months as employers cut far fewer jobs than expected, giving the clearest indication yet that the economy was turning around from a deep recession.
U.S. employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said on Friday, the least in any month since last August, taking the unemployment rate down to 9.4 percent from June’s 9.5 percent.
President Barack Obama said July’s jobs report showed the worst “may be behind us.” But he cautioned there would be no true recovery as long as the economy continued to shed jobs.
The U.S. Congress will consider extending unemployment benefits after it returns in September to help 1.5 million Americans who risk exhausting them, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
