Obama's Joblessness Dilemma: Fighting Minority Unemployment is Good Economics but Tough Politics

The nation is plagued with one of the highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression. Not only have rates of joblessness risen significantly, but long-term joblessness has increased as well. More than 40% of today's unemployed have been without work for more than six months - and a disproportionate percentage of these workers are African-American. All of the problems that we have come to associate with joblessness in the inner city - including family breakdown and neighborhood disruptions - have probably been magnified during this period. And, although the overall black unemployment rate has reached almost catastrophically high levels, what is interesting is that the official white unemployment rate has actually increased more rapidly than the black levels over the past two years.