New York, NY —

A report released today shows blacks especially native born ones remain under represented in the construction industry and earn about 60 percent of what whites earn.

REPORTER: Dr. Dennis Darryck from the Milano Graduate School helped author the report. He says local trade unions should be monitored to make sure blacks are getting good paying jobs and keeping them:

DARRYCK: We know there's a 50 percent drop out rate. Who's monitoring this, who's entering who's working, when are applications going to be available. Where's the transparency. It's a transparency issue we have to deal with.

REPORTER: The report also found unemployment rates for blacks went DOWN in 2006 compared to 2003. At 7.4 percent, it's still more than double the unemployment rate for whites and about 1 percentage point higher than Latinos. At nearly 200 pages, the report also covers issues such as the lack of black representation inside boardrooms, and the decline of black home ownership due to foreclosures.