Study: How Much Education Does It Take to Get a Job? Depends on Your Race
Photograph; Members of the University of California, Merced, Class of 2009 listen as first lady Michelle Obama delivers the commencement speech on May 16, 2009. | David Paul Morris/Getty Images
By Erin C.J. Robertson | Originally Published at The Root. June 26, 2014 12:01 PM
By Erin C.J. Robertson | Originally Published at The Root. June 26, 2014 12:01 PM
Six years after the Great Recession, young black Americans still have a disproportionately high unemployment rate—16.6 percent—and need to attain two additional levels of education to have the same likelihood of obtaining a job as their white counterparts.
“Young African Americans need two more levels of education than their young white counterparts to have the same chance at employment” is the stark conclusion of a new study from Young Invincibles, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on young Americans.
The study, “Closing the Race Gap” (pdf), confirms the timeless adage that as a black person, “you have to be twice as good” to accomplish the same as white peers.
To test how education closes the employment gap between black and whites, researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 Current Population Survey, isolating the effects of race and educational level, empathyeducates – Study: How Much Education Does It Take to Get a Job? Depends on Your Race:
