Barrington cautions African American workers experience notably tougher labor market

With the release of the latest U.S. unemployment numbers, Sonari Glinton of the National Public Radio turned to Linda Barrington, ICS Executive Director, to provide context on the employment situation faced by workers of color in the U.S.  In his story, "Jobless Rate Falls For Blacks, But It's Not Good News Yet," Barrington voices caution in how optimistically to view the improvement in the unemployment rate for African Americans, which dropped from 13.7 percent to 12.6 percent in July.  

"Everyone is, unfortunately, sort of shifting out of the middle to either the lower-paying or the very high end," says Barrington. As a result, "we're seeing this hollowing-out of the middle as this recovery continues." She adds that we need more investment in workplace training, science and technology skill-building and equilibrating the education rates across populations groups; "and then we have to come back to these questions of bias and prejudice."

Read and listen to the full story at Jobless Rate Falls For Blacks, But It's Not Good News Yet