The Great Recession took its toll on millions of Americans, but its effects hit minorities hardest. The housing crisis was especially brutal for minorities, many of whom were pushed into bad mortgages by the nation’s biggest banks. The loss of 600,000 public sector jobs also hit hard, since black and Latino workers are more likely to hold government jobs than their white counterparts. Those layoffs have continued since the end of the recession as state and local budgets remain crunched.
And though the nation’s unemployment rate — currently at 8.2 percent — is abnormally high, that rate would represent generational lows for black and Latino workers. Even the 9.6 percent unemployment America experienced at the peak of the crisis would be an improvement for blacks, whose unemployment rate has rarely dipped below 10 percent in the last 50 years.
SOURCE: Great Recession Doubled Wealth Gap Between Whites And African-Americans | ThinkProgress.