Education |

Study: Even for college-educated blacks, road to full-time work is rocky

Months before he graduated from college, Jeramey Winfield was sending out resumes and applying for jobs online in Chicago.

The media studies major hoped to jump from Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire right into the Chicago workforce, in marketing or event planning, so he could get his own apartment and begin helping his family financially. But after more than a year of networking, sending out applications and asking mentors for help, Winfield still doesn’t have a full-time job. In fact, he said, he’s rarely been called back for an interview.

“I had this picture in my mind of working downtown, taking the train in and contributing to my profession,” said Winfield, who often wears dapper, fitted business suits. “I had this vision of helping my mom out, since she struggled to raise five of us. I wanted to give her some relief.”

While unemployment is falling to its lowest level in years, recent college graduates across the country are nonetheless struggling to find work. A new report found that, for young African-Americans with a four-year degree, the job search has been especially brutal. They are having a harder time than whites finding a job, are more likely to be in a job that does not require their college degree and are being paid less than white workers with the same experience.

Even African-Americans who study science, technology, engineering and math — majors that have been winners in the job market — have had a hard time finding work, said John Schmitt, a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who co-authored that recent report, “A College Degree is No Guarantee.”

“We are looking at a group of people who did everything right,” Schmitt said in an interview. “They graduated high school like they were told. They went to college and graduated. They entered the labor market. But they are more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts.”

In many cases these graduates were the first in their family to attend college, so they bear heavy expectations and responsibilities, from carrying the banner of success for the family to providing financial help. That has made their search for work all the more urgent, and their failure a greater burden.

The gap between whites and blacks has been fueled by many factors. Black college graduates don’t have strong networks, and they often don’t have the experience to navigate the corporate world and reach the people who hire. More important, according to Schmitt, young African-Americans can face a measure of discrimination when they try to get their foot in the door, sometimes losing job opportunities to white applicants.

“Employers give in to their racial bias and they are more likely to offer a job to a white candidate than a black candidate,” Schmitt said.

Among recent black graduates ages 22 to 27, the jobless rate in 2013, the last year for which data are available, was 12.4 percent compared with 5.6 percent for whites. For black 22-year-olds just leaving college, 67.1 percent were underemployed, compared with 56.2 percent for all college graduates in that age group, Schmitt said.

Joblessness can be particularly traumatic for young African-Americans, said Robert Hawkins, an associate professor in poverty studies at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Often they have to cope daily with racially charged incidents, Hawkins said. Plus there is the pressure of living in poor, violent communities. Sometimes there is the pressure from family and friends who expect them to be more immediately successful.

“You have someone who went to the right school, worked really hard and was told they can be anything they want,” Hawkins said. “Then they realize that isn’t true. … Not only do they have that failure, they have the collection of other experiences from being black in America.”

Chad Harris, 23, graduated last year from Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia. He thought he’d have a full-time job in public relations by now. By joining the Public Relations Society of America, he has made contacts. He volunteers at Chicago Ideas Week and at the Inspiration Cafe free meals program to generate business connections. Even when he doesn’t feel upbeat, he makes sure he hands out his business cards.

“I have become my own public relations machine,” he said. “How can I work for a public relations firm if I can’t promote myself?”

With the advice of mentors, he has sharpened his online portfolio and his LinkedIn profile and he’s working on developing his presence on Twitter. In January, Harris landed an internship at the public relations firm Edelman in consumer marketing. He hopes the three months will become six, then lead to a permanent job.

“I am trying and using what I have to make a name for myself and be great,” he said. “To keep hearing no, it makes me work harder. I think, ‘You may not want me now, but I’m going to put myself into the position where you’ll need me.'”

Tanasia Burton leans on her mother and grandmother for motivation so she won’t give up on her job search. She applies for three to five jobs a week, she said, and follows up with phone calls. It’s been five months and still nothing.

“I feel like it’s harder for me to get a job because of my degree,” said Burton, 22, who graduated last year from Robert Morris University with a degree in business administration. “The main thing people say is, I don’t have the experience to go along with my degree. When I apply to average jobs, I don’t get them because they think I will demand higher pay because of my degree. It’s frustrating.”

Because her family couldn’t support her financially, Burton is saddled with student loans, she said. She gets paid a modest amount for caring for her elderly grandmother.

“My mom and grandmom say, ‘Keep going. God will open a door for you to get a job that is meant for you,'” she said. “I’ve come so far — it doesn’t make sense to throw in the towel.”

At the Career Transitions Center of Chicago, Executive Director Anita Jenke said that, even with degrees, her young African-American clients face unique obstacles in their job searches. Some of Jenke’s clients come from struggling communities and their families rely on them to help with bills, child and elder care. Because their income is limited, they don’t have the money to catch public transportation or pay for cab fare back and forth to interviews. Sometimes they lack stable Internet access, and many jobs require resumes and applications to be filled out online.

Some of Jenke’s clients can’t afford to keep their cellphones working, another barrier.

“These kids have so much to give,” Jenke said. “They are so motivated, so personable and committed to making it. They are accomplished and often they want to work helping to contribute to society. They just need an opportunity.”

At Colby-Sawyer College, Winfield was a standout student who created the campus’ first gospel choir.

“Jeramey is just a wonderful person who made our campus a better place,” said the college’s president, Tom Galligan, who became friends with Winfield while he was on campus. “He brought enthusiasm, a unique perspective on life and passion for music. A lot of us now listen to gospel music, because of him.”

His success at Colby-Sawyer, which he attended on a scholarship, is part of the reason Winfield can’t understand why he can’t find a job.

“I feel like I’m a sharp and confident person,” he said. “I’ve always gone above and beyond. It does make me think, ‘Am I not good enough? What’s wrong with me?'”

So instead of working full time, Winfield scrapes by earning money from working with a mentoring program at his former high school in North Lawndale. Occasionally he will pick up substitute teaching jobs, which pay him about $125 a day. The rest of the time, he volunteers as a youth leader at his church and searches for work. He lives with a relative in the same West Side neighborhood he worked so hard to escape.

As the first college graduate in his family, Winfield feels pressure to contribute soon. He has an older brother who was shot and left paralyzed. His mother is low-income and his siblings struggle to get by. Winfield has an education valued at more than $200,000, yet no work.

“Being rejected by the professional world has pushed me to go harder working at my high school and my church,” he said. “Since I can’t give what I learned to a professional environment, I know I can come back to where I came from and use it here. I’m still a success to the people here.”

lbowean@tribpub.com

Twitter @lollybowean