...
Bla1c [obless rate lip;'
. .
,g�ner� rate drops
W SHI GTO - The Reagan Ad- they feel they c· n't, declined to 1.5
ininistta ion re cted with elation last million in the last quarter of 19 3,
wee to the new that the nation's ci- 350000 bel w last year.
vilian unemployment rate had dropped "But Blac s continue to rna e up a
to 8.2 percent in Decernb�r from 8.4 djsproportlonately large hare ofl all
percent in ovember. . couraged w r er - 31 percent in the
'�hi certainly is continued good last quarter of the year:' said the Labor
ne ,. said artin I S. Feldstein, chief Department report.
hite ou economist, who predicted Even though Blacks s ill are suffer-
that the joble rate would drop to ing the mo from joblessne , the Labor
7.7.percent by fall. Department listed as good new the fact
And since December of 1982 that in the ,Past year unemployment-
when the unemployment rate peaked at among Blacl overall fell from 20.9
10.7, the rate ha dropped 2.5 percent percent to 17.8. nd for Hispanics
, a drop that has not been matched in any " the rate dropped from 15.5 percent to
year sin'ce 1950. '. 11;6 percent.
But the ne s was not all that good .ln the e period, white jobless rate
, for Blac wor er . dropped form 9.6 to 7.1 percent.
id R dy 0 ad,. an AFUIO \. The improvem nt in the job market
ecoriomist. . over the yd , the Labor Department
"The picture for Black Americans oted, exceeded forecast .
i till ery bleak,"" ny Black h ve Figure show that a record 102.9
de paired of finding job and h ve drop- million Americans had jobs in December,
-ped out of the labor force entirely." 3.9,millio more than were working the
And the �overnment figure back up previous December.
o ald's ent. ' In contra t to the standstill for Black
bile j bout every other catego- teenager, the rate' for white jeenager
ry improved from ovember to Decem- .dropped from 21.6 percent in 1982 to
b r, the rate for Black men actually - 17 percent last month.
ent up to 17.8 percent from 17.7. oting that a lot of extra workers
And for Black teenagers, the figure are hired by retailer for the Christmas
remain d I • at a staggering 49 percent, season, some economists viewed the
unchang d over hat it w s this time December figures with caution.
la ye . Of the 10 large, tate measured in
For Black wo en, the rate fell only the December flgures't assachusetts
. htly in he year from 16.7 percent recorded the lowest civillian unem-
.in Decemb ,1982, to 15.9 no . ployrnent - 6.4 percent: and 'Michigan,
Department of Labor officials said with problems existin still in its heavy
that "discouraged orkers," those out of industries, registered the highest
work and riot trying to find a job because 1 J.6 percent.
•
W AS.HINGTON
e number of
Blac elected officials' nationwide rose'
by 8.6 percent between !u1y 1983,
.: the J oint Center for Po lit cal Studie
ha found. As of July 1983, there were
I" 5,606 Black elected officials up from
5,160 in July 1982.
• Th 1983 increase represents a dra­
matic tumarou d in the trend of the
last eight years.· Although. the number
of Black elected officials has i reased
every' year, the rate of increase h s been .
declining since the ea ly 1970 after the
e y spurt of pro e' following pa sage
of the 1965 Voting Right Act. Last
year's increase; wa� only 2.4 percent.
The jump in the number of Black
elected officials is part of a general up­
surie . iD Black political activity. The
number of registeredob Black voters.
increased by almost 6 ,000 between
1980 and 1982; Black turnout rose by
5.8 percent In the 1982 congre sional
elections .(over the "1978 level); and
1983 saw highly visible campaigns by
Black candidates at several levels of
government.
The South, which Jhas 62 percent of
the Black elected officials in the count , "
had the largest et gam of any regio
- 301 more Blac elected officials, an
increase of 9.6 percent .. But the orth­
east, with 12 percent of Blac offici ,
had greater rate of increase - 14
percent. The states with the largest"
increase were Arkansa , with a net gain
of 78, for a total of 297. ew Yor
gaine 44; Oklahoma" 42; Illinois, 38;
nd Louisiana, 36, i isSippi till has the
highest total numbe ' of Black elected
officials, 433 - 9 more than in 1982.
(As u ual, a small proportion of the
gain represent officials who had been
in offie but were not known to the
Join Center in previou ye r .)
. chigan retained the same number
of Black elected officials, 268.
The number of Biac members of
. ,
ongres increased from 18 to 2 , or
16.7 percent. The number of Bl ck te
legislators ro I by 13.6 perc�t, and the
number of B1 ck mayors, by 10.8 per-
I •
cent. I . '
Once agalli, the increa in the number
o female Blac elected official
larger than the overall increa :
'percent. A� of July 1983, me 22 per-
cent all Blac elected offici , -
1 ,223 - ere women. By contra , only
ab�ut 10 percent of all elected offlCi�
are women.
The Joint Center has been countin
Blac elected officials since 1910. In
1965, hen the Voting Right ct w
first passed it is estimated there ere
fewer th 3 0 Black elected om ial
in the country. In 1970, there ere
1 469; in 1973, ten year ago, there
were 2, 621. Even at the ne high,
ho ever, Blacks hold only 1.1 rcent
oft e elective office in the country.
everthele , this year' gaiD are
especially encouraging according to
Eddi . Williams, president of ' the Joint
C ter for Political Studies. "State
nd local offices are often pringboards
that launch successful tcandidacie for
Congress and other high po ts, There­
fore, I am particular y impr d by the
large increase at the levels. The large
surge . the numb r of Black elected
official at n levels is a furt e indi-
cat n of the blac community's com­
ent to u the political proce
the nation to pur ue their hope
an a piration ." I .'
NORTH OF AIN �IS;E.D I· ,
BENTO HARBOR _. � e brochure
promoting uth e ern . chigan a
plant and factory developrnen site lists
e orth of ain indu rial par as
h ving 59 cres av ilable.
The brochure list 13 indu trial parks
in the tri-county area with 1 ,225 re
and 3 dditional industri ites,
I
, .
"
•
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