Yellen: Unemployment Rates Are Separate, Unequal

“Even in the context of the more widely cited 4.7 percent rate, improvement in the aftermath of the Great Recession has been anything but even. Yellen on Tuesday noted that ‘unemployment rates averaged 13 percent in low- and moderate-income communities from 2011 through 2015, compared with 7.3 percent in higher-income communities.’
‘The challenges for workers in minority communities are even greater. The average unemployment rate across all census tracts where minorities made up a majority of the population averaged 14.3 percent from 2011 through 2015,’ she said. ‘Also, a much smaller share of the prime working-age population in these areas is employed – 67.7 percent during this period, which is nearly 9 percentage points lower than in communities with smaller minority populations.'”