There has been a lot of talk lately about the lack of diversity among the employment marketplace. Several studies and articles have examined the idea that minorities are still having a hard time finding a job than their white counterparts, regardless of education or other qualifying factors.

Many people have contended that race is an issue of the past, especially with the election of President Barack Obama, America's first African American president. However, those directly affected by the issue maintain that race is still a hot-button issue when it comes to employment.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, blacks had the highest unemployment rate among the four races listed during October, at 15.6 percent, followed by Hispanics at 12.7 percent, whites at 9.3 percent and Asians at 7.3 percent.

Surprisingly, black job seekers with college degrees have had a harder time finding a job this year than black job seekers without college degrees. At the same time, college-educated black men are facing fierce competition from college-educated white men. During 2009, black male college graduates at least 25-years old have had an 8.4 percent unemployment rate, compared to a 4.4 percent unemployment rate for their white counterparts.

Many academic studies also have confirmed that black job seekers have a harder time finding employment than white job seekers. A recent study from the Journal of Labor Economics found that white, Asian and Hispanic managers tend to hire more whites and fewer blacks when compared to black managers.

A recent study from Social Problems, an academic journal, found that white males receive substantially more job leads for high-level supervisory positions than women and members of minorities.

Several years ago, The American Economic Review published a study entitled, "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?", a study that found job applicants with black-sounding names receive 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with white-sounding names.

According to an article by The New York Times, interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers throughout the country found that discrimination is rarely overt. Respondents instead said they often received surprised looks and offhand comments, as well as a loss of interest after meeting with companies.

However, the article points out, these job seekers recognize that discrimination may not be intentional, but simply a case of people gravitating toward similar people and looking for the right "cultural fit." In addition, many higher-level jobs are not posted outside the company and depend on word-of-mouth and informational networks.

The article further found that while some minorities considered "pulling the race card," even more found a bigger benefit in removing race-identifying credentials from their resumes and electing not to identify their race on job applications.