This is not a new phenomena but it must be underscored: unemployment hits blacks, especially men, much harder than the rest of the population, as the Fiscal Policy Institute found is the case in New York City:

The FPI report found that the citywide unemployment rate in the third quarter was 15.7 percent for blacks, 11.8 percent for Hispanics, 7.3 percent for white non-Hispanics, and 6.1 percent for the Asian and other category. Unemployment was higher for men (11.0 percent) than for women (9.1 percent).

The highest rates of unemployment were for blacks, particularly black men. In ten of the 24 neighborhoods identified in the report, black non-Hispanic unemployment was over 15 percent – one and a half times greater than the city’s overall unemployment rate. For black men, the official city-wide unemployment rate for the third quarter was 19.9 percent.

   I shudder to think what the rate of unemployment for black men is in devastated cities like Detroit.