WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, released the following statement on the Verizon-Google deal:

"Yesterday's announcement by Google and Verizon is welcomed news.

"According to the Labor Department's August 6 report, Blacks and Hispanics continue to be the groups hardest hit by the nation's job crisis. The black unemployment rate was 15.6 percent, the Labor Department said, and among Hispanics, unemployment was 12.1 percent. For whites the unemployment rate was 8.6 percent, and Asians had an 8.2 percent jobless rate.  

"The National Black Chamber of Commerce continues to be concerned about the state of our economy.  We are focusing all our attention on job creation.  One of the quickest ways to create jobs for African Americans and others is to encourage broadband investment and allow innovation to flourish. 

"We believe this proposal presents a timely opportunity to move the country forward and refocus the attention on the implementation of the National Broadband Plan and job creation instead of stifling regulation.

"NBCC applauds Verizon and Google's approach to find ways to protect an open Internet and encourage broadband deployment."

SOURCE National Black Chamber of Commerce