Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Tribune: A lower black jobless rate. Somebody tell Illinois.

A recent Tribune editiorial, you might hit a paywell before you're able to read the whole thing:
The U.S. economy is in the ninth year of expansion. It will become the longest on record, surpassing the 1990s boom, if it reaches the second half of 2019. Growth, which had been unspectacular, perked up during President Donald Trump’s first year in office because businesses are investing more. Attribute their optimism to the tax reform deal and the administration’s focus on removing regulatory red tape.

With growth and investment come hiring: Employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017, the seventh year above 2 million. The benefits, though, aren’t equally shared. At 6.8 percent, the black unemployment rate nationwide is nearly twice as high as the 3.7 percent rate of white unemployment. Cue that 10-percent rate of black joblessness here: As more African-Americans in other states come off the unemployment rolls, many of those who live in Illinois are left behind.

In Chicago, the job situation in hollowed-out West and South side neighborhoods is dire. Manufacturers left long ago. There are few retail and restaurant jobs. All the economic activity is located miles away in the Loop and elsewhere in metropolitan Chicago. Too many young people have inadequate job training and … nothing to do. According to the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, more than 40 percent of 20-to-24-year-old black males in Chicago are out of work and out of school. Does a booming national economy ever touch Chicago’s most impoverished neighborhoods? Can young people be drawn out of urban isolation?
On a slightly related note via CapFax, I really can't believe the statements coming from Gov. Bruce Rauner. Does he really believe Michael Madigan has so much control of this state, as a mere state house speaker? Madigan is a bottle neck through the legislature, but he really thinks Madigan is in control of this state?
Anyway, can we solve the issue of few opportunities in the neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Chicago?

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