Business
African American unemployment drops
The overall jobless rate fell for the fifth straight month to 8.3 percent after a surge of hiring.
Monthly jobs report featuring mixed results are becoming a trend and January 2012 was no different. The African-American unemployment rate declined significantly to 13.6 percent from 15.8 percent in December. The overall unemployment rate also fell from 8.5 percent to 8.3.
According to a report from Automatic Data Processing, Inc., companies added 170,000 workers in January, a sign that the job market is continuing to grow at a moderate pace. Most of the jobs were in service providers and small businesses.
“Over the last 22 months, we’ve had consecutive private sector job growth—over three million jobs created. It’s another indication that private sector job growth is going well, but we’ll probably see public-sector jobs retreat in the wrong direction,” said Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pennsylvania).