The annual report, called the State of Black America, also included a ranking of income inequality and unemployment for 77 American cities that had large black populations and 83 cities that had large Hispanic populations, based on data from the American Community Survey, an annual survey by the Census Bureau.
Nationwide, black Americans are twice as likely to be unemployed as whites (13.1 percent of blacks versus 6.5 percent of whites, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). The rate for Hispanics was 9.1 percent. The report also focused on underemployment which includes those who are jobless and not looking or working part-time jobs but desiring full-time work. According to the report, the underemployment rate for black workers was 20.5 percent, compared with 18.4 percent for Hispanic workers and 11.8 percent for white workers.
The report ranked metropolitan statistical areas where the unemployment gap between blacks and whites was both larger and smaller than the national average.
There were also differences in income between blacks and whites. The region with the smallest gap in median income between blacks and whites was Riverside, California, which also had one of the smallest unemployment gaps between the two groups. In that area, the median household income for blacks was $44,572 a year compared with $57,252 for whites.
There were no cities where blacks fared better than whites in terms of income or employment. That was not true for Hispanics.
Source: Published originally on The New York Times as Report Finds Hispanics Faring Better Than Blacks byTanzina Vega, April 2, 2014.