The Twin Cities has one of the highest levels of black unemployment in the nation -- a condition that is disturbingly consistent with other key racial disparities found in the state. A recent Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study found that African-Americans here are three times as likely to be unemployed as whites.

For years, Minnesota has had larger-than-average racial gaps in areas from K-12 education to health care to housing. Because of that, the new joblessness information may not be surprising, but it should be alarming enough to provoke action. As minority populations grow, the state cannot afford to have so many of its residents unhealthy, undereducated and unemployed.

The EPI report, "Uneven pain: Unemployment by metropolitan area and race," ranks the nation's 50 largest metro areas based on U.S. census data from 2008 and 2009. Researchers found that the Twin Cities, with a black unemployment rate of 20.4 percent, is second only to Detroit. That rate means that local African-Americans, regardless of income and education, are 3.1 times as likely as whites to be without jobs.

When it comes to racial disparities, this region and state stand out in the worst possible ways. Though Minnesota's overall population often tops test scores, health rates and other quality-of-life indicators, the state has a poor record of bringing blacks and other minorities up to the same levels of working- and middle-class life as whites. Some experts say that discrimination and segregation fuel Minnesota's especially large racial divide. Increased school and neighborhood racial isolation and deepened concentrations of poverty combine to reduce opportunities, including the social networks that help people find work.

Five years ago, the Itasca Project, a coalition of metro-area CEOs, released its "Mind the Gap" study, which concluded that such disparities weaken the state's economic competitiveness. "The overall health of the region masks stark disparities ... and such disparities matter to economic competitiveness," the study concluded.

The report raised awareness, and more businesses are having difficult discussions about racial gaps, according to Mary Brainerd, Health Partners CEO and Itasca committee chair.

To address the problem, the EPI report recommends that job-creation efforts be targeted at the racial and lower-income communities that are most in need of a boost. Minneapolis has taken that approach with several youth-jobs, adult-training and workforce-partnership programs that have provided work and other opportunities for tens of thousands of city residents -- about half of them people of color. And Brainerd says that examining the disparities helped change the way her company looks at health results and set clear goals to improve outcomes for people of color.

It has long been true that when America gets the sniffles, black America catches pneumonia. So the tough economy that has battered many family and business budgets for everyone has hit black and other communities of color even harder.

But if the nation is to recover from recession and go on to thrive, it cannot continue to have large swaths of the population left behind and unproductive. People of all races will suffer if society fails to address the kinds of racial disparities that are holding back the Twin Cities and Minnesota.