From the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epi.org/):
What surprised EPI Economist Kyle K. Moore when crunching the numbers for our latest report on state unemployment by race and ethnicity?
The fact that the historical unemployment gap between Black and white workers returned so quickly, he says. While unemployment rates fell for all groups over the third and fourth quarters of 2020, Hispanic unemployment remained 60% higher than white unemployment over both quarters, while Black unemployment rose from 60% higher to 90% higher between the third and fourth quarters—nearly completing its rise back toward a long-standing trend in which Black workers are twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers.
“Achieving equity in the labor market—one component of which would be that workers from different groups were equally likely to find employment—would require addressing the occupational segregation that leaves certain groups more highly exposed to precarious employment than others,” he stresses.
State unemployment by race and ethnicity
Despite the devastating public health effects of the pandemic, the labor market continued to improve for many workers, though at differing rates. Unemployment rates in the fourth quarter of 2020 fell below 10% for all groups except Black workers. Read the economic indicator »
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