Black unemployment rate falls to pandemic-era low in April
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In April, the unemployment rate among Black Americans fell to an all-time low of the pandemic era. This marks a significant milestone in the recovery of the labor market from the Covid crisis.
Last month’s headline numbers revealed a solid labor picture. U.S. increased 428,000 nonfarm payrollsThe April unemployment rate was 3.6%. This is better than what economists had expected. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The unemployment rate
| April 2019, | February 2020 | April 2020 | March 20,22 | April 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 3.6 | 3.5 | 14.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| We are white | 3.1 | 3.1 | 14.2 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| Black | 6.6 | 5.8 | 16.7 | 6.2 | 5.9 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 4.2 | 4.4 | 18.9 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| Asian | 2.2 | 2.5 | 14.5 | 2.8 | 3.1 |
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. All data are adjusted for seasonality and include those older than 20 years. Accessed April 2022.
Black workers saw their unemployment rate fall to 5.9% from 6.2% March, which was a remarkable drop. Black unemployment reached a record low of 5.4% in October 2019, which is the lowest recorded level.
Elise Gould senior economist at The Economic Policy Institute stated, “Black unemployment trending down fairly steadily over six months or so. And it’s now under 6% for first time during this recovery.”
“That is a good sign. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that it’s much higher than other groups,” she said.
Broken down by gender, Black men’s unemployment rate rose from 5.6% to 6.1% the previous month, while almost all other groups saw their unemployment rates decline or stay the same.
However, Black men’s labor force participation rates rose by a percentage to 68.9% in May. It shows that Black men have been more successful in the job market than ever before, but still face challenges when it comes to hiring.
This shows that the unemployment rate is not always a reliable indicator of the state of the labor market. William Spriggs chief economist of the AFL-CIO stated that employees who experience hiring frictions can be more sensitive than actual hiring to enter the search. tweet.
Kate Bahn is chief economist and director for labor market policy at Equitable Growth. She said that the extraordinary labor recovery in America hasn’t been enough to erase historical disparities.
“Even though we hear employers talking about labor shortages and that we have historically high jobs openings, there are still things we face like occupational segregation which limits the type of jobs people can do or hiring discrimination.” Bahn explained.
Black women saw their unemployment rate drop to 5.5% from 5.5% in March. It had fallen sharply in March and increased slightly in February.
EPI’s Gould emphasized the need to examine longer-term trends in order to assess labor market recovery.
Gould explained that when you split these into race, ethnicity, and gender the samples are small enough to show a lot volatility.
—CNBC’s Crystal Mercedes contributed to this report.
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