Black unemployment at highest level in 27-years

I think I blogged about a column where see President Obama trying to reassure his core supporters, Blacks. Well Black voters may not be the core of his support, but it's safe to say Blacks are the most steadfast of his supporters. Here is some information from the Tribune:

Black unemployment surged to 16.7 percent in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8 percent, the Labor Department reported.

"This month's numbers continue to bear out that longstanding pattern that minorities have a much more challenging time getting jobs," said Bill Rodgers, chief economist with the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

Black unemployment has been roughly double that of whites since the government started tracking the figures in 1972.

About 155,000 blacks got jobs in August, but the group's unemployment rate still went up because those jobs weren't enough to make up for all the people who started looking for work during the month.

However, the gain for whites of 211,000 jobs was enough to bring their unemployment rate down.

Overall, black men have it the worst, with joblessness at a staggeringly high 19.1 percent, compared to 14.5 percent for black women.

So why do we always seem to have trouble being employed?