Nonprofit CWI Labs, whose mission is to help underserved communities overcome workforce entry barriers, has partnered with WorkingNation to address the issue in a series of interviews for our An Equitable Recovery series.

In this interview, Spencer Overton, the president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, joins WorkingNation's editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim to discuss the issues facing Black Americans in the workforce.

"There were problems even before the pandemic. In 2017, we found that 27% of African American workers were concentrated in just 30 jobs at high risk to automation," explains Overton. "More recently, we looked at a list of 10 top jobs (in which) there are more African American workers in these jobs than any other jobs. That list of 10 overlaps with another top 10 list, and that's the top 10 list of jobs that will displace the most workers by 2030 pulled together by McKinsey." This overlap creates unique challenges for Black job seekers as they try to find their way back into the workforce.

Overton discusses steps forward which involve looking at systemic issues in our society. "Even if black folks had equal or superior skills and credentials, it seems from the existing data that disparities would still exist. So we definitely need to focus on skills, education, and credentials, they're very important, but we also need to focus on these other systemic factors as well to remove barriers for economic mobility for black communities."

Watch the interview about race, opportunity, and automation by CWI Labs on YouTube.