The black unemployment rate dipped slightly last month, while the national rate held steady at 9.1 percent, according to statistics released this week by the U.S. Labor Department.
The black unemployment rate dropped from 16.7 percent in August to 16 percent in September, according to Britt Middleton at BET. Black teen unemployment improved slightly, falling from 46.5 percent in August to 44.2 percent in September.
The overall economy added just enough jobs last month to ease fears of a double-dip recession, writes Christopher S. Rugaber at the Associated Press.
Employers added 103,000 jobs last month, an improvement over the sluggish month of August. But the total includes 45,000 Verizon workers who were rehired after going on strike and were counted as job gains.
Even with those gains, according to the AP, the jobs were not enough to jump-start the economy. Experts say it will take about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. The overall unemployment rate in September remained stagnant at 9.1 percent.
While the numbers are dismal, they are encouraging because there is no double-dip recession yet and African Americans received a minuscule reprieve from the grinding unemployment rate. More needs to be done. Elected officials need to get to work. They have jobs. An estimated 14 million Americans do not. A good first step for Congress would be to work with President Barack Obama on his $447 billion jobs bill.
Read more at BET and the Associated Press.
In other news: VIDEO: Herman Cain Takes on Race Questions.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.