Shift in Business Economy
Earlier, American economy was greatly dependent upon manufacturing industries such as steel, textile, automobile etc. These industries presented number of opportunities to uneducated but capable labor. Most of the workforce constituted of African Americans. However, this scenario has undergone a sea change with the emergence of new economical sectors such as Health Care and Information Technology. As a result of this, the reliance of American economy on traditional manufacturing sector reduced. These sectors demanded highly educated and trained professionals. This eventually, led to loss of business opportunities for the minimally educated workforce.

Unemployment
Although, unemployment is one of the cause of poverty, it is an altogether different social issue. Unemployment stems from various social, economical conditions. As mentioned above, shift in business economy is one cause of unemployment for a particular section of society. However, apart from that, there are several other factors which lead to unemployment. It is hard to ignore that majority of impoverished people are either unemployed or only part time employed. Only 2.5% of poor people come from a full time workforce. These figures indicate how a person’s financial state is influenced by his employment status.

Lack of Education, Skill
The incidence of high school dropouts is in congruence with the rate of poverty. Lack of education flatly translates to lack of employment opportunities, which eventually leads to poverty. As the demand for laborious jobs diminished, uneducated people were left to welter in poverty. As these people neither had education nor did they acquire any skills required to sustain in changed economical scenario, they were driven into the vicious circle of poverty. This again constituted a large number of black people.

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