I was sitting in my barbershop on Fredrick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem not too long ago when talk turned from the Knicks to the recession.

One barber said he was seeing the effects of the recession because clients who usually came once a week started to scale back to twice a month. Even I was slipping from my two-week grooming schedule to every three weeks, or as long as I could stretch it.

My barber agreed but then he said something quite intriguing: "For most of the black people I know, nothing has changed," he said. "We didn't have money before Lehman Brothers collapsed, and we don't have money now. Some people have been looking for a job for years. Black people been in a recession."All the heads in the shop -- freshly cut or not -- nodded. And this isn't just barbershop banter. The numbers don't lie. According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for African Americans is 15.2 percent, a 6.2 percent increase from December 2007 when the recession first began. The current jobless rate for the country is about 9.7 percent.

African American males 20 and older who are actively seeking work have a 17 percent unemployment rate. That means one out of every six African American males over 20 is unemployed. Black women have also seen their unemployment numbers jump to almost 12 percent, a 4.8 percent increase since the start of the recession. Even more troubling is the fact that it takes African American men six weeks longer, on average, to find a job compared with white men.

That's why plans to extend unemployment for an additional 13 weeks by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) is good news for places such as Harlem. McDermott said he's been receiving calls from people all across the country who "still cannot find work a year or more after becoming unemployed, and they need some additional help to keep their heads above water."

I'm sure an additional 13 weeks can help African American men who are out looking for work much longer than their white counterparts. The argument that extending unemployment will be a disincentive or will hurt recovery efforts simply doesn't fly in this economy. Jobs are scarce. The men and women the barber was talking about need help, encouragement and money to pay their bills while they try to find their next avenue of employment.

Although there's talk that the recession is over, that's only a technicality. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he expects the labor markets to remain weak through 2010. That means the numbers for African Americans may not improve for another year or two after that. Right now, the decision makers are doing the correct thing.

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the Joint Economic Committee, was one of the lawmakers who supported extending unemployment. "I think it's a crucial need as the recession continues," she told AOL Black Spin in a statement. "As the funding authorized by the stimulus kicks in even more, I'm hopeful that African American unemployment can start to be reduced."

And that's where African Americans should start. We should pursue the opportunities in the stimulus bill with vigor. In this economy, you must be flexible and able to apply your skills to more than one type of job.

Money to go back to school or to get retrained in a specific skill, such as green construction, are opportunities we must take advantage of. We already know that if things get worse, we will feel the effects first.

Take it from my barber.