Nearly one in five African-American workers hold government jobs

African-Americans make up about 20% of U.S. Postal Service workers - and are the majority in some urban centers, representing 75% to 80% of the 5,000 letter carriers in the Chicago area, according to Mack Julion, president of the Chicago branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers. But the public sector has cut nearly 600,000 jobs since 2009, due to shrinking government budgets and a range of other issues, according to the Bureau of Labor Relations. The slower recovery for African-Americans in the labor market has, in part, been the result of government layoffs after the end of the recession was declared, according to the DOL report. In December 2012, the black unemployment rate was 14%, roughly double that of whites.