Business
African American billionaire Proposes Plan To Reduce Black Unemployment
As congress scrutinizes President Obama’s US$447 million jobs plan, RLJ Companies CEO Robert Johnson (pictured), is pushing a proposal that he says marshals the capacity of the nation’s biggest companies to significantly reduce black unemployment.
Johnson has dubbed his idea the “RLJ Rule.” It calls on Fortune 1000 companies to voluntarily consider a more diverse pool of qualified candidates when filling senior level job openings and hiring contractors. Johnson has described it as the business version of the National Football League’s Rooney Rule, a 2003 mandate that required teams to consider diverse candidate pools when filling senior positions.
Johnson, the United States’ first black billionaire, has been critical of the way that the Obama administration and Congress have tried to address the nation’s stubborn unemployment problem
