Page 19 - 111 8 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> shannon: with september's unemployment rate falling to 7.8% things on the surface appear to be looking up. what does the number actually mean for you? molly henneberg digs a little deeper. >> reporter: three of president obama's most loyal voting blocs in the 2008 election are struckling in the current economy. remember, september's national unemployment rate is 7.8%. breaking that down by demographics, african americans 13.4% unemployed, up from 11.3% this time four years ago. hispanics, 9.9% unemployed, up from 8% in september of 2008. and young people ages 18 to 29 a september unemployme...

Far more bleak for some particular groups. molly henneberg, takes a look at this part of the story from washington. >> three of president obama's most loyal voting blocks in the 2008 election are struggling in the current economy. remember, september's national unemployment rate is 7.8%, and breaking that down by demographics, african-americans, 13.4% unemployed. that's up from 11.3% this time four years ago. hispanics, 9.9% unemployed. up from 8% in september 2008. and young people, ages 18 to 29, a september unemployment rate of 11.8%. and up from 9.8% in 2008. one analyst says young people ...

Now, young people, ages 18 to 29, generation opportunity put this together by analyzing bureau of labor statistics data, the rate for the age group is 11.8 percent. generation opportunity which studies economic numbers among america's youth says the situation here is even worse. >> we have an additional 1.7 million young american whose is dropped out of the labor force. if you take that number and roll it into the 11.8 percent, the nonadjusted number would be 16.6 percent for the labor force participation rate for 18-29, the high of the since world war ii. >>reporter: does this make a differen...

18 to 29. they voted 66% for the president in 2008. the unemployment rate among that group now, 11.8%. jon? jon: wow! molly henneberg in washington. molly, thanks. jenna: interesting to see the breakdowns, isn't it? jon: when you slice and dice the country up the picture is really bad in spots. jenna: depends on the age, the region. we'll talk a lot about the jobs numbers throughout the day today. again we're waiting on the president and his comments on numbers. mitt romney expected to make a an appearance in the next hour. meantime a convicted murderer get as happy birthday present after his ...

That takes it down to 11.8%. compare it to the national average of 7.8%. the trend may head in the right direction, but our next guest's work is far from done. young people are ready, willing and able to give back to the country. they need the opportunity to do it. >> i just always assumed work really hard, get an undergraduate degree, go to grad school if you need to and it will open up more doors. it didn't turn into that. >> the problems of our society are so big and so complex right now. it can be overwhelming. >> as a country we have things that need doing, and we have young people who ca...