Giving Compass' Take:
- Chabeli Carrazana reports on Black women’s unemployment rates continuing to rise for the third month straight despite broader national trends.
- What are the root causes of the rise in Black women’s unemployment? How can donors support equitable employment for marginalized communities?
- Learn more about key topics and trends related to quality employment.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on quality employment in your area.
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Unemployment rates over the past year have remained largely steady for every group of workers but one: Black women, whose unemployment rates have been rising.
For the past three months that increase has been even more pronounced, with Black women’s unemployment rate hovering at 6 percent — twice the rate of White workers — according to new data released Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a trend that has been troubling economists, and a potential sign of strain in the economy.
Because of systematic racism and inequities in the labor market, any cracks in the strength of the overall economy always show up for Black workers first, said Jessica Fulton, a senior fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on Black Americans.
“Black workers, and particularly Black women, show up as a canary in the coal mine, giving a picture of what may happen to everyone else later,” Fulton said.
Over the past several months, Black women’s unemployment rate has jumped from 5.1 percent in March to 6.1 percent in April, 6.2 percent in May and 5.8 percent in June. The unemployment rate among White women and Asian women stayed largely flat around 3 percent from March to June, and among Latinas, it hovered near 5 percent in that time period. The rate for every racial subgroup of men stayed flat during that time, except Black men, who last month saw a significant increase — 6.9 percent from 5.2 percent in May.
The implications are severe: Black women participate more in the labor force than any other group of women. They are the most likely to be working or seeking work, and they work in sectors that offer critical services, including health care, education and the federal government.
The high rate of unemployed Black women is also concerning because Black women tend to remain unemployed for longer than other workers, said Jasmine Tucker, the vice president for research at the National Women’s Law Center. In June, the average time Black women spent unemployed before they found a job was more than six months — the longest duration of any group.
Read the full article about Black women’s unemployment rates by Chabeli Carrazana at The 19th.