Touted as Issue #1 in the upcoming presidential elections, our ailing economy has left over 200,000 Americans out of a job over the past three months.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (of the U.S. Department of Labor) will not report unemployment data for respective states until April 18. However, in February the unemployment rate for Florida was at 4.6 percent, 2 percentage points below the national rate for that month.

The March report published by the stipulated March’s unemployment rate is the highest rate since the Gulf Coast states were ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

During March there were indications of both Caribbean and Africa Americans losing jobs. Several individuals lost jobs when the Miami-Dade School Board laid off part-time and temporary employees. The National Weekly also understands that in Broward County employees were laid off from some Caribbean restaurants, and local government agencies in the county. However, the majority of these individuals were not in the unemployment lines for long, as they reported obtaining jobs at businesses like Wal-Mart and Publix, but realized a decline in hourly wages averaging 55 cents an hour. the BLS report indicated that average hourly rate rose by 5 cents in March.

The most recent unemployment reports indicated that an additional 80,000 non-farm jobs were lost in the nation in March, pushing the national unemployment rate from 4.8 to 5.1 percent.

In both January and February 76,000 jobs were lost, revised from the original 17,000 and 63,000 respectively that was reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The March report and the revised January and February report means that non-farm unemployment for the first quarter of 2008 rose by 232,000.

In March, employment continued to fall in the areas of construction, manufacturing, and employment services, while health care, food services and mining added jobs.

Recession or what?

While Washington is skirting around the labeling what we now experience as a recession, economists are quicker to point in that direction. And it is understood that with less people holding jobs and making money, there will be less consumer spending, on which the economy largely depends. This in turn could lead to a contraction in sales and revenue for businesses.

But Washington is counting on the recently announced economic stimulus package which comes effective in May (when tax rebate checks will begin to be distributed) to boost consumer expenditure. The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Democrat Barney Frank of Massachusetts, in a statement related to the hike in unemployment, said that work must start on expanding the stimulus package, including an extension of employment benefits and assistance to cities and states.

A further slow down in consumer expenditure could, according to one report, be a reason for the Federal Reserve to announce another cut in interest rates when it meets again from April 29-30. Last week, the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that a recession was indeed possible for the U.S. economy.

However, in responding to the rise in unemployment for March the White House said that although the numbers were disappointing, they were not unexpected, as officials anticipated that the early part of 2008 would have been the weakest part of the year economically.

Blacks have highest unemployment rate

Currently, the unemployment rate among Blacks is at 9.0 percent after falling to 8.3 percent in February from 9.2 percent in January. For the first quarter of 2008 the average unemployment rate for Blacks stood at 8.8 percent, rising from 8.6 percent in the first quarter of 2007. The March unemployment rate for Whites was 4.5 percent, Hispanics 6.9 percent and Asians 3.6 percent.

An independent survey conducted on behalf of National Weekly in January 2008, indicated that unemployment among Caribbean nationals residing in South Florida was 3.9 percent – 3.0 percent among women and 4.8 percent among men.