It’s no secret that African Americans have to work twice as hard to be considered equal, and a recent study released by Young Invincibles provides further proof that a racial employment gap still exists.
The data was collected by looking at numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census and studying the effects that race and education has on job opportunities. Based on the study, a black male with an associate degree has the same chances of receiving employment as a white male with a high school degree.
“At every level of education, race impacts a person’s chance of getting a job,†Tom Allison, one of the study’s authors tells ThinkProgress.
Despite showing a higher unemployment rate for blacks, the research shows that earning an additional degree has a much greater impact on African Americans than whites. According to the data, a black male with a professional degree has a 146% larger increase in job opportunities than his white counterparts.
The study points to hiring discrimination, high incarceration of African Americans and lack of generational wealth as reasons for why an employment gap is still so prevalent today.
Look at the graph below to get a further idea of the impact race and education has on job opportunities for black males.