In 2004, the median net worth of white households was $134,280, compared with $13,450 for black households, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the Economic Policy Institute

By 2009, the median net worth for white households had fallen 24% to $97,860 while the median net worth for black households had fallen 83% to $2,170, according to the institute. In 2009, for every dollar of wealth the average white household had, black households only had two cents. More black people than ever before could fall out of the middle class because the unemployment rate for college-educated blacks recently peaked and blacks are overrepresented in state and local government jobs. Those are jobs that are being eliminated because of massive budget shortfalls. Since the end of the recession, which lasted from 2007 to 2009, the overall unemployment rate has fallen from 9.4% to 9.1%, while the black unemployment rate has risen from 14.7% to 16.2%, according to the Department of Labor. In April 2011, black male unemployment hit the highest rate since the government began keeping track in 1972. Only 56.9% of black men over 20 were working, compared with 68.1% of white men. Even college-educated blacks fared worse than their white counterparts in the recession. In 2007, unemployment for college-educated whites was 1.8%; for college-educated blacks it was 2.7%. Now, the college-educated unemployment rate is 3.9% for whites and 7% for blacks. Nearly 8% of African Americans who bought homes from 2005 to 2008 have lost them to foreclosure, compared with 4.5% of whites, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsible Lending.