Even though Alabama currently reports historically low unemployment rates, the numbers mask longstanding issues in the Black Belt, according to new research.

Many residents in the state’s poorest region are left out of its low unemployment count because they’ve stopped looking for work. Many are single parents who struggle to find jobs while balancing child care.

The state’s Black Belt counties, all 24 of which have been stuck in persistent poverty for decades, have a higher concentration of residents that have fallen through the gaps in finding jobs, according to new data released Oct. 19 by the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama.

“We cannot ignore for another 60 years the enduring persistent poverty that’s characterizing the Black Belt,” said Garrett Till, a research associate at the center who is from Greenville, in the region. “Its people, our state and the nation deserve better here.”

Till spoke during a press briefing on employment in the Black Belt on Thursday, as part of the Education Policy Center’s series researching and analyzing issues that residents of the Black Belt face. Previous issues include broadband access, educational attainment and access to healthcare.

The Education Policy Center’s new data on the Black Belt region measures the Prime Age Employment Gap, which counts adults between the ages of 25 and 54 years who aren’t working and aren’t searching for a job, in addition to people who are unemployed and still searching.

The Black Belt’s Prime Age Employment Gap rate – 12% – is double the rate of other counties in Alabama, per American Community Survey data analyzed by the Education Policy Center.

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Why aren’t they working? Experts say it’s not just that Alabama needs to “get them off their fannies,” as Gov. Ivey said in August about eligible workers who aren’t looking for work.

Persistent challenges, not laziness, typically stop people from finding regular work, according to the report.

The obstacles to returning to the workforce require wraparound services and funding for childcare, eldercare, transportation and behavioral and mental health care, researchers said during the briefing. That’s especially true for single parents and people who have been incarcerated, per the report.

Because of those obstacles, all the region’s counties surpass the federal government’s poverty threshold and meet the federal definitions of “persistent poverty” – meaning at least 20% of its population was in poverty for at least 30 years – and have been since 1960.

“From the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott to the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march in 1965, to now, we haven’t seen any movement,” said Stephen Katsinas, head of the Education Policy Center, at the press briefing.

The 530,503 residents living in the Black Belt make up roughly 10% of the state’s population. Nearly three-fourths of them are people of color, and are predominantly Black, per the report.

Nine out of the 10 Alabama counties with the largest difference in prime age employment gap compared to the national rate are in the Black Belt, per the report.

In three Black Belt counties – Monroe, Perry and Wilcox – the Prime Age Employment Gap is at least four times higher than the statewide rate of 5%.

The Black Belt’s population counts 47.5% of single-parent households, more than double the U.S. average and higher than Alabama’s statewide average of 38%, per U.S. Census Bureau research analyzed by the Education Policy Center.

This matters because poor, single parents are often caught between two choices: go back to work and pay for childcare, or stay home and survive with their family on government assistance. That also doesn’t account for adults who are caretakers for elderly family members, as elder care services can be even more expensive than childcare, said Sam Addy, a senior research economist and the associate dean for economic development outreach at the University of Alabama.

“In the Black Belt, once a family has children, access to affordable childcare and medical benefits impacts the ability to keep working,” the report reads.

Other obstacles face people who have been incarcerated, who are often barred from jobs because of their criminal records.

“With such a drastic difference between the two Alabamas, the Black Belt is challenged to give second chances,” the report reads.

This data is part of a research series from the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center focusing on problems facing the Black Belt, and attempting to find solutions. See more data from this series here.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Hannah Denham at [email protected].

Read more:

Black Belt K-12 students perform far worse in math, science than rest of Alabama

Alabama Black Belt’s struggle with poverty a ‘chicken and egg’ problem, but there are solutions

Black Belt shrinking faster than anywhere else in Alabama, latest Census reports