Poor, blacks struggling in DC economy: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even though employment in Washington has grown every year since 1998, the percentage of blacks employed in the nation's capital has fallen, according to a study released Wednesday.

At the same time, the income gap between the top 20 percent of earners and the bottom 20 percent has reached the highest in nearly 30 years, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute found, with wages for low earners nearly inert since 1979.

"The District really has two economies. One is moving forward strongly, but the other one is stagnating, even deteriorating," said Ed Lazere, executive director of the research group.

The report, which drew on census surveys, also found one in five residents is currently considered poor, the highest rate since 1998 when the city began experiencing rising employment and dropping poverty rates.

In a city where more than half of the population is black, African Americans are five times more likely than whites to be unemployed. Only 51 percent of black adults worked in 2006, the report found.

Lazere said there is no one explanation for the local earnings, and noted it fits into a larger national trend. Still, he said, "there's no doubt" the city's employment and wage conditions are worse than most, especially for those with no more than a high school diploma. Income inequality is wider in the District than in every major U.S. city except Atlanta and Tampa.