Unemployment Rate Surges For Black Workers, Especially Women

Job seekers talk with potential employers during a job fair at the Wyandanch Community Resource Center, on September 30, 2022. | Source: Newsday LLC / Getty

In a troubling sign that one prominent economist called a “serious cause for concern,” the Black unemployment rate in November surged to its highest level in eight months, with Black women workers in particular bearing the brunt of the joblessness.

Meanwhile, there was no change for white workers, while the unemployment rate for Asian workers actually fell, albeit by a small percentage, according to the data released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The overall Black unemployment rate rose by 7 percentage points, going from 5.7% in both September and October to 6.4% in November.

Source: X screenshot

But that jump was modest compared to November’s unemployment rate for Black women, which surged more than a full percent following consecutive months of their jobless rate declining.

In October, the unemployment rate for Black women stood at 4.9%, falling from 5.3% in September. But last month, that rate shot up to 6%. That’s the highest the unemployment rate for Black women has been since February 2022.

“This rise in unemployment was also associated with a drop in labor force participation, 0.5 percentage point for Black people overall and 0.3 pp for Black women,” Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said in a statement sent to NewsOne.

However, Baker also described the Black unemployment trends in alarming terms.

“The data for Black workers are highly erratic,” Baker said. “It is not unusual to see a large jump reversed in subsequent months, but this rise in reported unemployment should be serious cause for concern.”

The unemployment rate also rose for Hispanic workers in November to 5.3%, according to the Council of Economic Advisers.

Source: X screenshot

The November jobs report comes a little more than a month before the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who was president in May 2020 when the Black unemployment rate was nearly triple what it is now.

Trump was elected in part with the help of a rise in support from Black and Latino voters, exit polling data shows. Those Black and brown voters specifically said they supported Trump’s candidacy because of his stances on jobs and the economy, according to the Associated Press.

Conversely, during the election cycle, Trump repeatedly referred to the unproven idea of “Black jobs” being taken by undocumented immigrants — who have been largely portrayed in the media as being Latino and Hispanic — and readily took credit for inheriting former President Barack Obama’s stable economy that helped the Black unemployment rate reach a historic low that was ultimately eclipsed by President Joe Biden’s administration last year.

Why is the Black unemployment rate always so high?

The truth is, Black unemployment rates have been steadily climbing over the last decade. Of course, the pandemic certainly exacerbated those stark numbers, but the problem has been prevalent in the community for a while now. According to an article written by the Centers For American Progress, between January 1972 and December 2019, the African American unemployment rate “has been twice as high” compared to the rate for whites. The rate briefly dropped during 2008’s Great Recession, but the numbers did not show a significant enough improvement in the years that followed.

Between January 1972 and December 2019, it never reached as low as 1.5 times the white rate, the report noted.

A study conducted by the Brookings Institution found that in metro areas, the unemployment rate was six times higher among African Americans than white folks.

So what’s causing the Black unemployment gap?

For African American men, mass incarceration plays a significant role in their lower labor force participation. According to the American Journal of Sociology, “African American men are more likely to be incarcerated following an arrest” than white Americans while “formerly incarcerated individuals of all races experience difficulties in gaining employment.”

Black men facing a history of criminal behavior on their records are more times than not affected by racial bias during the hiring process. Recruitment agencies have rallied to “ban the box,” something which would prohibit employers from asking applicants about their past involvement in the criminal justice system to prevent hiring discrimination –another structural barrier that continues to hinder the Black male unemployment rate.

Source: AntonioGuillem / Getty

Even with the high rate of unemployment for Black men, it still remains considerably less than that of Black women.

According to a study conducted by the Washington Post, there were “550,000 fewer adult Black women working now than in February 2020.” Exorbitant costs and a lack of adequate child care played a large role in the setback.

The data also debunks the popular (and racist) narrative that Black people are lazy and would prefer to live off of government benefits than actually work a job.

Ultimately, the unemployment rate measures how many people are actively looking for work, and Black people have always been resilient in their job searches. Valerie Wilson of The Economic Policy Institute suggested that Black people have always been actively searching for work, but are having a harder time finding positions. The research indicates that before the recession hit Americans hard in 2008, the unemployment rate was beginning to draw down in 2007 with the rate falling to a “2.8%” decline versus the unemployment rate for whites which saw a decline at “3.3%.”

This is America.

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