What is the unemployment rate among people of Somali ethnicity in the USA?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not produce a single, authoritative current national unemployment rate for people of Somali ethnicity in the United States; published snapshots and academic summaries show a wide range depending on geography, year and measurement method — roughly spanning from about 5% in one profile to double‑digit figures (around 11–13%) in others [1] [2] [3]. The evidence indicates Somali employment outcomes vary sharply by state and over time, and the sources provided do not include a recent, nationally representative American Community Survey (ACS) or Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) breakdown specifically labeled “Somali” to settle the question definitively [3] [4].
1. What the sources actually report — a patchwork of estimates, not a single national figure
Several of the supplied sources present different snapshots: a widely cited Wikipedia summary reports that in Minnesota at the time of the 2010 Census Somalis were 13% unemployed with 47% employed and 40% economically inactive [3], Marketplace reported the Somali unemployment rate as “roughly 11 percent” while focusing on Minneapolis political advances [2], and a third online demographic profile gives much lower aggregate figures — an overall Somali unemployment rate near 5.3% and gendered rates of about 5–5.6% — without clear documentation of methods [1].
2. Why the numbers diverge — geography, survey year, and who counts as ‘Somali’
Differences arise because some figures are local (Minnesota, where Somalis are concentrated) and time‑bound (2010 Census or 2011–2015 survey windows), while others are derived from third‑party compilations or media reporting that do not always specify sample frames or definitions of Somali identity [3] [2] [1]. Academic work and public‑policy reports also highlight large within‑group variation — men and women, new refugees versus longer‑settled immigrants, and regional labor markets produce different employment outcomes [3] [4].
3. Context from academic and policy literature: higher joblessness than some peers, but nuance matters
Scholarly reviews note Somali Americans frequently face multiple marginalizations (race, religion, refugee status) and report higher unemployment than many other East African immigrant groups, a pattern linked to language barriers, lower formal education levels for many arrivals, and discrimination [4]. At the same time, some analyses emphasize areas of economic activity and entrepreneurship among Somalis — indicators that complicate simple unemployment comparisons and that help explain why local employment rates (e.g., Minneapolis area self‑employment or higher local employment) can look different from national summaries [3] [4].
4. Limits of the supplied reporting and what it means for answering the question
The provided documents do not include a single, recent nationally representative statistic from the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS or the BLS specifically labeled “Somali” that would allow a definitive current national unemployment rate to be stated with confidence; instead, the reporter must rely on disparate local snapshots, media estimates and secondary compilations with varying transparency about methods [3] [2] [1]. Where sources do give numbers, they point to a plausible range: roughly low single digits in one profile, around 11% in a media piece about Minnesota, and 13% in a 2010 Minnesota census snapshot [1] [2] [3].
5. Bottom line and guidance for further verification
The best synthesis of the supplied reporting: there is no single agreed‑upon national unemployment rate for Somali‑ethnic Americans in these sources; the numbers provided by reputable snapshots cluster between roughly 5% and 13% depending on place and time, with Minnesota often showing higher joblessness than some national summaries [1] [2] [3]. To move from a range to a precise current rate would require consulting the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS microdata or a peer‑reviewed labor‑market study that isolates Somalia‑born and Somali‑ancestry respondents nationwide — datasets and methods not included among the materials supplied here [3] [4].