Report Says Black Men Cost The Economy $50B Annually — Here’s Why

Black men are unemployed at a much higher rate than their counterparts — and it’s creating an economic crisis in the country.

According to the Atlanta Black Star, Black communities take a hit totaling $50 billion annually in costs due to this unemployment crisis.

“Black people need to take this report and take it to their elected official and say ‘You need to do more because you don’t fully realize how big this problem is,’” said Algernon Austin, who authored the study initially published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. {snip}

{snip} Using data going all the way back to 2014, he revealed that Black men between the ages of 25 to 54 would have to get nearly a million jobs (947,000, to be exact) to be on par with their non-Black counterparts and close the economic gap. {snip}

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{snip} In October 2021, the unemployment statistics revealed that Black men have an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent, while their white counterparts only had a 4 percent unemployment rate.

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