Cultural factors help limit recession’s impact: While the recession has been brutal for just about every segment of the population, Asian Americans have apparently had the lowest jobless rate every month since 2000, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking monthly unemployment among Asians, reported USA Today. The unemployment gap — 7.5 percent for Asians in October, compared with 10.2 percent nationwide — stems from a combination of education benchmarks and cultural traditions that foster family support when someone is out of work, researchers say. “Asians in the United States, both native born Asians and Asian immigrants, have higher educational levels than other groups,” says Alan Berube, senior fellow and research director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. A recent Labor Department report on the work force shows a greater proportion of Asians than other racial or ethnic groups in management, professional and related occupations — jobs that require more schooling and are high-paying. About 47 percent work in management or professional jobs compared with 35 percent for the U.S. work force as a whole.
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