In 2011, the nationwide African American unemployment rate stood at 15.9 percent—and in several of the country’s large metropolitan areas, the black unemployment rate was significantly higher.

This issue brief examines African American unemployment rates of the 19 metropolitan areas for which we could derive reliable estimates. The key findings of this brief are:

• In 2011, the Las Vegas and Los Angeles metropolitan areas had the highest black unemployment rates, at 22.6 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively.
• Of the metro areas examined, Las Vegas experienced the largest increase in black unemployment from 2010 to 2011.
• Metro areas in or including parts of Virginia—Virginia Beach, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.—had the lowest black unemployment rates. However, at around 10 percent, these areas still had high rates of black unemployment.
• The biggest black-white unemployment rate disparity was in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, where the black unemployment rate was 3.3 times the white rate.

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