Jun 13, 2014 02:19 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

While unemployment rates across America may be slowly dropping, the job market is still tough on recent college grads and even tougher on black recent college grads.

According to a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, black college students are facing additional barriers in the job hunt. The study suggests black recent college grads are twice as likely as all other races combined to face discrimination during the job-hunting process.

The study authors found black college graduates faced an unemployment rate of 12.4 percent in 2013, whereas grads of other races saw an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent. Study lead author John Schmitt told USA Today his team's work was based on several government labor-market-related surveys.

"Almost five years after the end of the recession, over 12% of black recent college graduates are unemployed and more than half of those with jobs are in a job that doesn't require a college degree," he said. "Black workers must deal with ongoing racial discrimination."

However, students like Alexis Davis, an African-American 2013 graduate at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, do not believe racial discrimination play much of a role.

"While some may disagree with me, I personally do not believe that job discrimination specifically toward recent black college grads exists," she said. "There will always be specific cases or instances where individuals feel they were treated unfairly, but as a whole I truly believe black students apply and are offered jobs they are qualified for."

She said cultural reasons may be more plausible and that Schmitt's study was "surprising" to her.

"I've seen many students forced to return home to help take care of younger siblings, nieces and nephews or older family members," Davis said. "I definitely do believe part of the gap is cultural."

Still, experts on workplace diversity like Dr. William Guillory, founder of the consulting firm Innovations International, believe discrimination is playing a role in the job market and poor education is just exacerbating the problem.

"Most organizations compete on an uneven playing field [because] we have motivations that discriminate against people," he told USA Today. "African Americans as well as other racial or ethnic groups have not been exposed to the type of education they need to cope with the unfairness that exists in the system."

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