THE NEXT AMERICA

Unemployment Rate Falls Across Racial and Ethnic Lines

By Stephanie Czekalinski

Updated: May 7, 2012 | 3:52 p.m.
May 4, 2012 | 12:36 p.m.

Employers cut back on hiring in April and more people quit looking to work, according to a new jobs report out Friday.

Overall the economy added 115,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a point to 8.1 percent.

The unemployment rate among whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians dropped. But the employment picture is very different among the different groups.

Asians had the lowest unemployment rate of the four groups - 5.2 percent, Labor Department data shows. A larger share of blacks are unemployed than any other group. More than 12 percent of those who want to work, don’t have jobs. The unemployment rate among Hispanics fell below 10 percent, but is still greater than the share of unemployed whites, 7.1 percent.

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