Government unemployment numbers for December 2012 showed that while the general unemployment rate remained flat at 7.8%, unemployment for women and African-Americans rose despite an economy that created 155,000 jobs

Unemployment for women rose to 7.3% in December 2012 from 7.0% while the unemployment rate for African-Americans rose sharply to 14.0% from 13.2% in November 2012. Unemployment among African Americans has remained quite high throughout the sluggish economic recovery of the past several years, despite the steady decline in overall unemployment in the economy generally. The number of employed African Americans actually fell in December 2012 – a month that typically sees a spike in job creation as employers add temporary positions to handle the Christmas shopping season. The number of employed African Americans fell from nearly 16 million to 15.8 million in December 2012. By contrast, the unemployment rate for whites remained nearly a full point below the national average at 6.9% in December 2012.