Jobs and unemployment are a huge topic right now. At last glance, the unemployment rate was 9.7% for the nation, with some areas obviously being much harder hit than others. We’ve got the Wall Street crowd back on their feet and stock prices back close to where they were in the mid-boom times. We’ve got the car companies doing alright, with one of them even avoiding bankruptcy. We’ve even got the banks doing alright, with another foreclosure disaster coming in the future if they don’t figure out some fancy ways to deal with the home prices, but I think they will.

What we don’t have is a whole lot of new jobs being created for the people who have lost them. And that means a whole lot of people with manufacturing and construction and other trade skill or factory jobs. We also see a much higher unemployment rate for black Americans, 15.8% in February, than we do for the rest of the country. And the White House is feeling the pressure.
This week President Obama met with black and Hispanic community leaders about what to do about it. Black community leaders are pushing for something actionable and concrete to be included along with immigration reform as a national priority.

"We talked about the desperation that we're feeling in our communities throughout the country," said Democratic Representative Barbara Lee, head of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The meetings talked about summer youth employment, job training that is tied to apprenticeships, and fair access to contract jobs that are made with stimulus cash.

"We leave the meeting today feeling hopeful. The president took an hour of his time to have a conversation, not to give a speech and that is significant. …there were commitments made about truly seeing this issue moving forward and the White House getting engaged to help in that process," said Clarissa Martinez de Castro of the National Council of La Raza.

He’s feeling the pressure on the immigration front, but has also pledged that he will do something and that it is a top priority. Lots of priorities.

"I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find common sense answers to one of our most vexing problems," said Obama.

Common sense and vexing problems across bipartisan lines? Sounds tough.

Both of these are big deals for President Obama- a high jobless rate in black communities and the problem of immigration reform in the face of millions of “illegal immigrants” in the United States both shoot to the core of what the Democratic Party is all about. They are core issues for Obama as well, and I know he knows it. Will he be going into November with momentum after passing the healthcare reform bill that will bring more Democrats into the Congress and let him push more legislation to help with job creation and immigration reform? or will he be dealing with fallout from a bill that doesn’t pass or an unpopular passed one?

It remains to be seen.

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