US racial income divide widens, report finds

NEW YORK - African-Americans' share of US national income has narrowed in recent years as a weak job market helped unwind earlier strides, according to a report.

A black family's median income was 62 per cent of the earnings of their white counterparts, down from 63.5 per cent in 2000, the Economic Policy Institute said.

"The racial gap widened by 2004 as a result of the recession and the jobless recovery that followed," said Jared Bernstein, economist at the Washington think-tank.

Unemployment helped erase the progress that had been made since 1995, when the level was closer to 61 per cent. Had the jobless rate remained at 4 per cent, as it was in 2000, the share of black incomes would have risen to 63.9 per cent of whites'.

"That 1.9 percentage point difference translates to an income loss for the typical black family of over US$1,000 ($1,600) in 2004 alone," the report said.

- REUTERS