From the Economic Policy Institute: The Native American Jobs Crisis and How to Solve It

In the short video “Native Americans and Jobs: The Challenge and the Promise,” Algernon Austin, EPI research associate, analyzes the ongoing Native American jobs crisis and presents policy initiatives to address it. Although Native American unemployment remains extremely high, there is great promise to increase employment of Native Americans with policy interventions, including increasing technical education and investing in infrastructure. Native Americans suffer from crisis-level unemployment rates across the country. They have significantly lower odds of being employed than whites. Further, they have endured five years of unemployment rates over 10 percent. One way to generate job growth is by addressing the country’s tremendous infrastructure needs, which could put millions of Americans of all races back to work, and would help stimulate a much-needed economic recovery for Native Americans. Other policies include empowering Native American communities, improving Native American education outcomes, and conducting additional research on Native Americans’ economic circumstances.