Inequality of unemployment: ethnic groups face different lengths of unemployment

Published: Tuesday, Dec. 4 2012 3:45 p.m. MST

People queue outside an unemployment registry office in Madrid Friday Oct. 28, 2011. The government says Spain's unemployment rate rose more than half a percentage point in the third quarter to 21.5 percent. The National Statistics Institute said Friday the country's jobless ranks swelled by nearly 145,000 in the July-September period. The jobless rate in the second quarter was 20.9 percent. The total number of people unemployed as of the end of the third quarter was 4,978,300.

Paul White, Associated Press

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Summary

Unemployment does not treat all American's equally. Asians and African Americans are unemployed for the longest periods of time out of all other ethnic groups, according to a study done by Face the Facts.

Unemployment does not treat all American's equally, one study finds.

Asians and African Americans are unemployed for the longest periods of time out of all other ethnic groups, according to a study done by Face the Facts.

Overall, the unemployment rate hovers around 8 percent. Of that, the average period of unemployment for individuals varies. Asians are unemployed on average for 27.7 weeks, African Americans for 27 weeks, Caucasians for 19.7 weeks and Hispanics for 18.5 weeks.

All the factors about why unemployment time varies on ethnicity are not known, but rates in mid-2012 hit 14.1 percent for African Americans, which is nearly twice as much as the 7.2 percent unemployment of Caucasians.

Hispanics have the second highest rate at 10.2 percent and Asians the lowest with 5.9 percent unemployed.

EMAIL: alovell@deseretnews.com

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