By CultureBanx Team
- Black Male Workforce Rises to Largest Ever Amid U.S. Recovery
- The overall Black unemployment rate is currently at 9.2% higher than any other racial group
Black men are back in business across the U.S, as the labor force for this demographic rose to a record in June. The recovery has been more sluggish for minority groups, so this is an uplifting sign that U.S. workers may be trying to take advantage of a fast recovery and higher wages being touted by some companies.
Why This Matters: The gap between Black and White labor-force participation shrank to its lowest level ever. Despite the encouraging top-line numbers, the job-market’s 2020 swoon and its 2021 recovery have not fallen equally across the U.S. labor force.Though in constant decline the Black unemployment rate is currently at 9.2% higher than any other racial group.
Black men over 20 still have the highest unemployment rate of all the race and gender groups tracked by the Department of Labor, at 10%, as employment climbed at a slower pace than labor-force growth. Latino men older than 20 were the only major race and gender cohort to see a drop in their unemployment rate, to 6.6% from 6.7%.
Situational Awareness: The recession’s unequal impact is more pronounced in analysis that includes race and gender. Black and Hispanic women, in particular, have suffered some of the steepest spikes in unemployment and largest drops in labor force participation rates since the pandemic began. Unemployment rates for Black women, who are more likely to have a college education, are typically lower than those for Black men.
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