Unemployment: Black Men in Milwaukee

This is huge.

Elected officials and community leaders in the city of Milwaukee should be rushing to the press to comment on a new study by UWM. The study reveals that black males in Milwaukee have the lowest employment rate on record.

In the wake of the 2008-'09 recession, black male employment in metro Milwaukee plunged to the lowest levels on record, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The data highlight a renewed setback to an urban region that for years has helped set national extremes for poverty and unemployment, following a decades-long collapse of the city's manufacturing economy that left a depression in the urban core.

According to the UWM analysis of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, only 44.7% of the area's working-age black males ages 16 to 64 were employed in 2010, which is "the lowest level in metro Milwaukee ever recorded in census data." Only two of the nation's 40 largest metro areas analyzed in the study - Buffalo and Detroit - reported lower black male employment rates in 2010 than Milwaukee.

"No metro area has witnessed more precipitous erosion in the labor market for black males over the past 40 years than has Milwaukee," according to the report, which echoed findings in recent years by the Journal Sentinel. "The 2010 data, however, revealed a new nadir for black male employment in Milwaukee."

Employment levels for the region's black men declined sharply from 52.9% in 2008, which was the year when over-indebted banks, hobbled by subprime mortgage debt, curtailed lending and threw the brakes on the broader economy, triggering the deepest and longest recession since the Depression of the 1930s.

The decrease in black employment is even more drastic compared with 1970, the year when both the city and the nation approached their respective peaks in industrial employment. In 1970, Milwaukee led the nation in factory employment for black laborers with nearly three in four holding a job (a 73.4% employment rate), which is 28.7 percentage points higher than the current record low.

This is a disaster!

This Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report of the disastrous state of black males in Miwaukee doesn't mention Mayor Tom Barrett. NOT ONCE!

The story was posted on the website YESTERDAY. Obviously, it wasn't updated to include any comment from the city's executive, Barrett. The wannabe governor of Wisconsin, certainly a potential candidate, wasn't asked to comment on the findings of this study.

It's stunning.

Where does the buck stop?

Who is responsible for such dismal employment figures among black males in the city?

What is Barrett doing about it?

Where are the protests? Where is Jesse Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton?

Occupy Mayor Barrett's office!

This is really amazing. The Journal Sentinel's bias is sickening. The liberals there manage to work Scott Walker's name into any remotely negative story. They twist themselves into knots just to attach Walker's name, blaming him for everything. Yet when it comes to Barrett, he's given a pass. Barrett doesn't even offer his trademark "I am outraged" quote.

Stunning.

Bottom line: The city of Milwaukee has serious problems. Apparently, the residents are cool with that. They aren't booting their elected officials out of office. There's no uprising. There's no search for new leaders.

Milwaukee voters should support Ieshuh "Not the Whiteman's Bitch" Griffin for mayor.

She can't be worse than Barrett.

Actually, I think Edward MacDonald should be seriously considered to replace Barrett. He has failed Milwaukee. He doesn't deserve another term.

Barrett should be history as mayor. Reelecting him would be a thoroughly stupid move, Milwaukee residents. He's a failure.

Tom Barret, THIS is your legacy. No excuses.
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Learn more about Edward MacDonald. Give him a chance.