Few commentators have examined the racial implications of this reduction in government employment. This is an important question to address because often policy prescriptions that, on the surface, are race-neutral can have decidedly racial impacts.

This Data Brief presents a picture of Blacks in unions that goes beyond the data in the BLS report. Part II examines overall Black unionization disaggregated by gender. Part III presents data on Black unionization disaggregated by gender and region. Part IV examines Black unionization with a focus on the largest 10 metropolitan areas.

This report finds that throughout 2011, Black worker unemployment remained in the 15 to 16 percent range, while unemployment for the rest of the workforce dropped below 9 percent.

This study that finds that more than half of U.S. Black workers earn low wages and lack advancement options. The study also explores how new global economic realities are having an impact on future employment prospects for Black workers.

This report documents the disproportionate number of Blacks holding low-wage, dead-end jobs, and assesses responses to this crisis from activist organizations nationwide.

Recently, there have been seemingly contradictory announcements concerning the economy. This brief provides some explanation and context in light of economy recovery amidst continued job losses and stubbornly high unemployment.

Economic Policy Institute report. This paper examines the context that gave rise to demand for a national minimum wage during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, presents historical trends in the real (inflation-adjusted) value of the minimum wage and the impact on black workers, and discusses some of the contemporary issues surrounding minimum-wage policies.

This research brief documents aspects of racial inequality before the Great Recession—in other words during the best of recent times.

a policy brief that analyzes African Americans’ economic progress over the last 40 years and uses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of economic justice as the basis for policy recommendations to dramatically reduce poverty.