In 2023, the unemployment rate of African Americans in the United States stood at 5.5 percent. This was over the national average of 3.6 percent.

The high rate of unemployment

There are many reasons why the unemployment rate among minorities is different than the national average. When it comes to African Americans, a large part of this is due to historical events, such as slavery and the struggle for civil rights, as well as the number of Black families living below the poverty level. Additionally, in 2019, for every 100,000 of the population, there were 2,203 Black men in prison. This high rate of imprisonment can contribute to the unemployment rate for African Americans, since having been in prison can reduce one’s chances of finding a job once released.

Earning differences

African Americans also make less money than other ethnicities in the United States. In 2020, the median weekly earnings of African Americans were 794 U.S. dollars, compared to Asians, who made 1,310 U.S. dollars per week, and whites, who made 1,003 U.S. dollars per week. While the African American unemployment rate may be low, it is clear that much has to change in order to achieve full equality.

United States - Unemployment Rate - Black or African American was 6.30% in March of 2022, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Unemployment Rate - Black or African American reached a record high of 21.70 in June of 1983 and a record low of 5.10 in September of 2019. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Unemployment Rate - Black or African American - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on March of 2025.

In 2024, six percent of the Black or African-American population in the United States were unemployed, the highest unemployment rate of any ethnicity. In 2024, the national unemployment rate stood at four percent.

In 2023, 1.21 million Black or African American individuals in the United States were unemployed. This is a decrease from the previous year, but has yet to reach pre-pandemic lows.

Unemployment Rate: Female: NH: Black or African American data was reported at 5.400 % in Feb 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 5.300 % for Jan 2025. Unemployment Rate: Female: NH: Black or African American data is updated monthly, averaging 6.450 % from Jan 2016 (Median) to Feb 2025, with 110 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 17.200 % in May 2020 and a record low of 4.100 % in Apr 2023. Unemployment Rate: Female: NH: Black or African American data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.G037: Current Population Survey: Unemployment Rate.

The unemployment rate for people ages 16 to 24 in the United States in 202024 23 was 10 percent. However, this rate was much lower for people aged 45 and over, at 2.9 percent. U.S. unemployment The unemployment rate in the United States varies based on several factors, such as race, gender, and level of education. Black and African-American individuals had the highest unemployment rate in 2021 out of any ethnicity, and people who had less than a high school diploma had the highest unemployment rate by education level. Alaska is consistently the state with the highest unemployment rate, although the El Centro, California metropolitan area was the area with the highest unemployment rate in the country in 2019. Additionally, in August 2022, farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had the highest unemployment rate in the United States Unemployment rate The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the agency that researches and calculates the unemployment rate in the United States. Unemployment rises during recessions, which causes the cost of social welfare programs to increase. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says unemployed people are those who are jobless, have looked for employment within the last four weeks, and are free to work.

In 2023, about 23.51 percent of unemployed Black or African American individuals had been jobless for at least 27 weeks. This was slightly higher amongst Asian individuals, at 23.55 percent. See the monthly unemployment rate in the U.S. here.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Level - 20 Yrs. & over, Black or African American Women (LNU03000032) from Jan 1972 to Feb 2025 about 20 years +, females, African-American, household survey, unemployment, and USA.

In 1990, the unemployment rate of the United States stood at 5.6 percent. Since then there have been many significant fluctuations to this number - the 2008 financial crisis left millions of people without work, as did the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2022 and throughout 2023, the unemployment rate came to 3.6 percent, the lowest rate seen for decades. However, 2024 saw an increase up to four percent. For monthly updates on unemployment in the United States visit either the monthly national unemployment rate here, or the monthly state unemployment rate here. Both are seasonally adjusted. UnemploymentUnemployment is defined as a situation when an employed person is laid off, fired or quits his work and is still actively looking for a job. Unemployment can be found even in the healthiest economies, and many economists consider an unemployment rate at or below five percent to mean there is 'full employment' within an economy. If former employed persons go back to school or leave the job to take care of children they are no longer part of the active labor force and therefore not counted among the unemployed. Unemployment can also be the effect of events that are not part of the normal dynamics of an economy. Layoffs can be the result of technological progress, for example when robots replace workers in automobile production. Sometimes unemployment is caused by job outsourcing, due to the fact that employers often search for cheap labor around the globe and not only domestically. In 2022, the tech sector in the U.S. experienced significant lay-offs amid growing economic uncertainty. In the fourth quarter of 2022, more than 70,000 workers were laid off, despite low unemployment nationwide. The unemployment rate in the United States varies from state to state. In 2021, California had the highest number of unemployed persons with 1.38 million out of work.

Percentage of unemployment insurance claimants filing continued claims who are black or African American.

The unemployment rate of white disabled persons in the United States amounted to 6.7 percent in 2023. This is significantly lower than the unemployment rate of disabled black people, which was 10.2 percent in the same year.

In the second quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate among Black South Africans was 36.9 percent, marking a year-on-year change of 0.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2023. On the other hand, the unemployment rate among white South Africans was 7.9 percent in the second quarter of 2024, with a 0.5 percent year-on-year change. Unemployment prevalent among youth and women The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force population that is unemployed, while the labor force includes individuals who are employed as well as those who are unemployed but looking for work. South Africa is struggling to absorb its youth into the job market. For instance, the unemployment rate among young South Africans aged 15-24 years reached a staggering 60.7 percent in the second quarter of 2023. Furthermore, women had higher unemployment rates than men. Since the start of 2016, the unemployment rate of women has been consistently more than that of men, reaching close to 36 percent compared to 30 percent, respectively. A new minimum wage and most paying jobs      In South Africa, a new minimum hourly wage went into effect on March 1, 2022. The minimum salary reached 23.19 South African rand per hour (1.44 U.S. dollars per hour), up from 21.69 South African rand per hour (1.35 U.S. dollars per hour) in 2021. In addition, the preponderance of employed South Africans worked between 40 and 45 hours weekly in 2021. Individuals holding Executive Management and Change Management jobs were the highest paid in the country, with salaries averaging 74,000 U.S. dollars per year.

In the third quarter of 2024, 7.6 percent of the black population in Brazil was unemployed. The unemployment rate for Pardo Brazilians was approximately seven percent, while for whites it was five percent.

Graph and download economic data for Income Before Taxes: Unemployment and Workers' Compensation, Veterans' Benefits, and Regular Contributions by Hispanic or Latino Origin: Not Hispanic or Latino: White and All Other Races, Not Including Black or African American (CXUOTHREGINLB1004M) from 2013 to 2023 about veterans, contributions, compensation, benefits, workers, tax, white, latino, hispanic, income, unemployment, and USA.

South Africa is expected to register the highest unemployment rate in Africa in 2024, with around 30 percent of the country's labor force being unemployed. Djibouti and Eswatini followed, with unemployment reaching roughly 28 percent and 25 percent, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rates in Africa were in Niger and Burundi. The continent’s average stood at roughly seven percent in the same year.

Large shares of youth among the unemployed

Due to several educational, socio-demographic, and economic factors, the young population is more likely to face unemployment in most regions of the world. In 2024, the youth unemployment rate in Africa was projected at around 11 percent. The situation was particularly critical in certain countries. In 2022, Djibouti recorded a youth unemployment rate of almost 80 percent, the highest rate on the continent. South Africa followed, with around 52 percent of the young labor force being unemployed.

Wide disparities in female unemployment

Women are another demographic group often facing high unemployment. In Africa, the female unemployment rate stood at roughly eight percent in 2023, compared to 6.6 percent among men. The average female unemployment on the continent was not particularly high. However, there were significant disparities among African countries. Djibouti and South Africa topped the ranking once again in 2022, with female unemployment rates of around 38 percent and 31 percent, respectively. In contrast, Niger, Burundi, and Chad were far below Africa’s average, as only roughly one percent or lower of the women in the labor force were unemployed.

Dataset population: Persons aged 16 and over

Age

Age is derived from the date of birth question and is a person's age at their last birthday, at 27 March 2011. Dates of birth that imply an age over 115 are treated as invalid and the person's age is imputed. Infants less than one year old are classified as 0 years of age.

Economic activity

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person who was aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.

Ethnic group

Ethnic group classifies people according to their own perceived ethnic group and cultural background.

This topic contains ethnic group write-in responses without reference to the five broad ethnic group categories, e.g. all Irish people, irrespective of whether they are White, Mixed/multiple ethnic groups, Asian/Asian British, Black/African/Caribbean/Black British or Other ethnic group, are in the "Irish" response category. This topic was created as part of the commissioned table processing.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate for people of white ethnicity in the United Kingdom was 3.6 percent, the lowest of the provided ethnic groups in this quarter. By contrast, the unemployment rate for people in the Pakistani ethnic group was 10.7 percent.

Abstract

THE CLEANED AND HARMONIZED VERSION OF THE SURVEY DATA PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM REPRESENTS 100% OF THE ORIGINAL SURVEY DATA COLLECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS OF THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN

The Department of Statistics (DOS) carried out four rounds of the 2011 Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS). The survey rounds covered a total sample of about 52544 thousand households Nation-wide.The sampled households were selected using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling design. It is noteworthy that the sample represents the national level (Kingdom), governorates, the three Regions (Central, North and South), and the urban/rural areas.

The importance of this survey lies in that it provides a comprehensive data base on employment and unemployment that serves decision makers, researchers as well as other parties concerned with policies related to the organization of the Jordanian labor market.

It is worthy to mention that the DOS employed new technology in data collection and data processing. Data was collected using electronic questionnaire instead of a hard copy, namely a hand held device (PDA).

The survey main objectives are:

• To identify the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the population and manpower.
• To identify the occupational structure and economic activity of the employed persons, as well as their employment status.
• To identify the reasons behind the desire of the employed persons to search for a new or additional job.
• To measure the economic activity participation rates (the number of economically active population divided by the population of 15+ years old).
• To identify the different characteristics of the unemployed persons.
• To measure unemployment rates (the number of unemployed persons divided by the number of economically active population of 15+ years old) according to the various characteristics of the unemployed, and the changes that might take place in this regard.
• To identify the most important ways and means used by the unemployed persons to get a job, in addition to measuring durations of unemployment for such persons.
• To identify the changes overtime that might take place regarding the above-mentioned variables.

The raw survey data provided by the Statistical Agency were cleaned and harmonized by the Economic Research Forum, in the context of a major project that started in 2009. During which extensive efforts have been exerted to acquire, clean, harmonize, preserve and disseminate micro data of existing labor force surveys in several Arab countries.

Geographic coverage

Covering a sample representative on the national level (Kingdom), governorates, the three Regions (Central, North and South), and the urban/rural areas.

Analysis unit

1- Household/family. 2- Individual/person.

Universe

The survey covered a national sample of households and all individuals permanently residing in surveyed households.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

THE CLEANED AND HARMONIZED VERSION OF THE SURVEY DATA PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM REPRESENTS 100% OF THE ORIGINAL SURVEY DATA COLLECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS OF THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN

Survey Frame

The sample of this survey is based on the frame provided by the data of the Population and Housing Census, 2004. The Kingdom was divided into strata, where each city with a population of 100,000 persons or more was considered as a large city. The total number of these cities is 6. Each governorate (except for the 6 large cities) was divided into rural and urban areas. The rest of the urban areas in each governorate was considered as an independent stratum. The same was applied to rural areas where it was considered as an independent stratum. The total number of strata was 30.

In view of the existing significant variation in the socio-economic characteristics in large cities in particular and in urban in general, each stratum of the large cities and urban strata was divided into four sub-stratum according to the socio- economic characteristics provided by the population and housing census with the purpose of providing homogeneous strata.

The frame excludes the population living in remote areas (most of whom are nomads), In addition to that, the frame does not include collective dwellings, such as hotels, hospitals, work camps, prisons and alike.

Sample Design

The sample of this survey was designed using the cluster stratified sampling method. It is representative at the Kingdom, rural and urban areas, regions and governorates levels. The Primary Sampling Units (clusters) were distributed to governorates, urban and rural areas and large cities in each governorate according to the weight of persons/households and according to the variance within each stratum. Slight modifications regarding the number of these units were made. The Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) were ordered within each stratum according to geographic characteristics and then according to socio-economic characteristics in order to ensure good spread of the sample. Then, the sample were selected on two stages. In the first stage, the PSUs were selected using the Probability Proportionate to Size with systematic selection procedure. The number of households, in each PSU served as its weight or size. In the second stage, the blocks of the PSUs which were selected in the first stage have been updated. Then a constant number of households was selected, using the random systematic sampling method as final PSUs from each PSU (cluster).

Sampling notes

It is noteworthy that the sample of the present survey does not represent the non-Jordanian population, due to the fact that it is based on households living in conventional dwellings. In other words, it does not cover the collective households living in collective dwellings. Therefore, the non-Jordanian households covered in the present survey are either private households or collective households living in conventional dwellings. In Jordan, it is well known that a large number of non-Jordanian workers live as groups and spend most of their time at workplaces. Hence, it is more unlikely to find them at their residences during daytime (i.e. the time when the data of the survey is collected). Furthermore, most of them live in their workplaces, such as: workshops, sales stores, guard places, or under construction building's sites. Such places are not classified as occupied dwellings for household sampling purposes. Due to all of the above, the coverage of such population would not be complete in household surveys.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The questionnaire was designed electronically on the PDA and revised by the DOS technical staff. It was finalized upon completion of the training program. The questionnaire is divided into main topics, each containing a clear and consistent group of questions, and designed in a way that facilitates the electronic data entry and verification. The questionnaire includes the characteristics of household members in addition to the identification information, which reflects the administrative as well as the statistical divisions of the Kingdom.

Cleaning operations

Raw Data

PDAs were used to input and transfer data from the interviewees to the database. The plan of the tabulation of survey results was guided by former Employment and Unemployment Surveys which were previously prepared and tested. When all data processing procedures were completed, the actual survey results were tabulated using an ORACLE package. The tabulations were then thoroughly checked for consistency of data such as titles, inputs, concepts, as well as the figures.

Harmonized Data

• STATA package is used to clean and harmonize the datasets.
• The harmonization process starts with a cleaning process for all raw data files received from the Statistical Agency.
• All cleaned data files are then merged to produce one data file on the individual level containing all variables subject to harmonization.
• A country-specific program is generated for each dataset to generate/ compute/ recode/ rename/ format/ label harmonized variables.
• A post-harmonization cleaning process is then conducted on the data.
• Harmonized data is saved on the household as well as the individual level, in STATA and then converted to SPSS, to be disseminated.

Abstract

THE CLEANED AND HARMONIZED VERSION OF THE SURVEY DATA PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM REPRESENTS 100% OF THE ORIGINAL SURVEY DATA COLLECTED BY THE CENTRAL AGENCY FOR PUBLIC MOBILIZATION AND STATISTICS (CAPMAS)

In any society, the human element represents the basis of the work force which exercises all the service and production activities. Therefore, it is a mandate to produce labor force statistics and studies, that is related to the growth and distribution of manpower and labor force distribution by different types and characteristics.

In this context, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics conducts "Quarterly Labor Force Survey" which includes data on the size of manpower and labor force (employed and unemployed) and their geographical distribution by their characteristics.

By the end of each year, CAPMAS issues the annual aggregated labor force bulletin publication that includes the results of the quarterly survey rounds that represent the manpower and labor force characteristics during the year.

---> Historical Review of the Labor Force Survey:

1- The First Labor Force survey was undertaken in 1957. The first round was conducted in November of that year, the survey continued to be conducted in successive rounds (quarterly, bi-annually, or annually) till now.

2- Starting the October 2006 round, the fieldwork of the labor force survey was developed to focus on the following two points: a. The importance of using the panel sample that is part of the survey sample, to monitor the dynamic changes of the labor market. b. Improving the used questionnaire to include more questions, that help in better defining of relationship to labor force of each household member (employed, unemployed, out of labor force ...etc.). In addition to re-order of some of the already existing questions in much logical way.

3- Starting the January 2008 round, the used methodology was developed to collect more representative sample during the survey year. this is done through distributing the sample of each governorate into five groups, the questionnaires are collected from each of them separately every 15 days for 3 months (in the middle and the end of the month)

4- Starting the January 2012 round, in order to follow the international recommendation, to avoid asking extra questions that affect the precision and accuracy of the collected data, a shortened version of the questionnaire was designed to include the core questions that enable obtaining the basic Egyptian labor market indicators. The shortened version is collected in two rounds (January-March), (April-June), and (October-December) while the long version of the questionnaire is collected in the 3rd round (July-September) that includes more information on housing conditions and immigration.

---> The survey aims at covering the following topics:

1- Measuring the size of the Egyptian labor force among civilians (for all governorates of the republic) by their different characteristics. 2- Measuring the employment rate at national level and different geographical areas. 3- Measuring the distribution of employed people by the following characteristics: Gender, age, educational status, occupation, economic activity, and sector. 4- Measuring unemployment rate at different geographic areas. 5- Measuring the distribution of unemployed people by the following characteristics: Gender, age, educational status, unemployment type “ever employed/never employed”, occupation, economic activity, and sector for people who have ever worked.

The raw survey data provided by the Statistical Agency were cleaned and harmonized by the Economic Research Forum, in the context of a major project that started in 2009. During which extensive efforts have been exerted to acquire, clean, harmonize, preserve and disseminate micro data of existing labor force surveys in several Arab countries.

Geographic coverage

Covering a sample of urban and rural areas in all the governorates.

Analysis unit

1- Household/family. 2- Individual/person.

Universe

The survey covered a national sample of households and all individuals permanently residing in surveyed households.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

THE CLEANED AND HARMONIZED VERSION OF THE SURVEY DATA PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH FORUM REPRESENTS 100% OF THE ORIGINAL SURVEY DATA COLLECTED BY THE CENTRAL AGENCY FOR PUBLIC MOBILIZATION AND STATISTICS (CAPMAS)

---> Sample Design and Selection

At the beginning of the first quarter in 2018 (January-March),the sample design was developed. sample size was withdrawn 50% of the (panel households) visited in the same quarter last year and 50% of the sample size (new households) visited for the first time, as well as to divide the sample of each governorate into six parts instead of five , in addition to Develop research questions according to the goals of Nineteenth Congress of Labor Statistics held at Geneva in 2013, therefore new questions to measure informal employment and the informal sector. An application for the new questionnaire has been designed and implemented on the tablet, Entry application has been designed for the new questionnaire so that the question will be completed on the field and then The data is entered through the researchers at the offices, correcting the errors first-hand and returning to the family again and sending data daily.

The sample of Labor Force Survey is a two-stage stratified cluster sample and selfweighted to the extent practical.

The main elements of the sampling design are described as follows:

• Sample Size The sample size in each quarter is 22,626 households with a total number of 80804 households annually. These households are distributed on the governorate level (urban/rural), according to the estimated number of households in each governorate in accordance with the percentage of urban and rural population in each governorate.

• Cluster size The cluster size is 18 households.

• Sampling stages:

  (1) Primary Sampling Unit (PSU): The 2006 Population Census provided sufficient data at the level of the Enumeration Area (EA). Hence, the electronic list of EA's represented the frame of the first stage sample; in which the corresponding number of households per EA was taken as a measure of size. The size of an EA is almost 200 households on average, with some variability expected. The size of first stage national sample was estimated to be 5,024 EA.

  (2) Sample Distribution by Governorate: The primary stratifying variable is the governorate of residence, which in turn is divided into urban and rural sub-strata, whenever applicable.

  (3) First Stage Sample frame: The census lists of EAs for each substratum, associated with the corresponding number of households, constitute the frame of the first stage sample. The identification information appears on the EA's list includes the District code, Shiakha/Village code, Census Supervisor number, and Enumerator number. Prior to the selection of the first stage sample, the frame was arranged to provide implicit stratification with regard to the geographic location. The urban frame of each governorate was ordered in a serpentine fashion according to the geographic location of kism/ district capitals. The same sort of ordering was made on the rural frame, but according to the district location. The systematic selection of EA's sample from such a sorted frame will ensure a balanced spread of the sample over the area of respective governorates. The sample was selected with Probability Proportional to Size (PPS), with the number of census households taken as a Measure of Size (MOS).

  (4) Core Sample allocation The core sample EAs (5,024) were divided among the survey 4 rounds, each round included 1,257 EAs (565 in urban areas and 692 in rural areas).

A more detailed description of the different sampling stages and allocation of sample across governorates is provided in the Methodology document available among external resources in Arabic.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire design follows the latest International Labor Organization (ILO) concepts and definitions of labor force, employment, and unemployment.

The questionnaire comprises 4 tables in addition to the identification and geographic data of household on the cover page.

---> Table 1- The housing conditions of the households

This table includes information on the housing conditions of the household: - Type of the dwelling, - Tenure of the dwelling (owned/rent) , - Availability of facilities and services connected to the house - Ownership of durables.

---> Table 2- Demographic and employment characteristics and basic data for all household individuals

Including: gender, age, educational status, marital status, residence mobility and current work status

---> Table 3- Employment characteristics table

This table is filled by employed individuals at the time of the survey or those who were engaged to work during the reference week, and provided information on: - Relationship to employer: employer, self-employed, waged worker, and unpaid family worker - Economic activity - Sector - Occupation - Effective working hours - Health and social insurance - Work place - Contract type - Average monthly wage

---> Table 4- Unemployment characteristics table

This table is filled by all unemployed individuals who satisfied the unemployment criteria, and provided information on:

- Type of unemployment (unemployed, unemployed ever worked)

This statistic shows the distribution of the unemployed population in the United States in 2011 by race and ethnicity. 20 percent of the unemployed population in the United States were black or African American in 2011.