The black unemployment rate in the US has historically been twice as high as the white unemployment rate. However, recent data shows that these inequalities are shrinking, with the narrowest gap on record. Additionally, more black Americans are now participating in the labor force compared to white Americans.
It is a grim fact of American life that black people have long lagged well behind white folk in the world of work, with higher unemployment, lower wages and a larger share giving up on job searches altogether. A much more hopeful fact is that many of these inequalities now appear to be shrinking. In the half-century before the covid-19 pandemic, the black unemployment rate was on average twice as high as the white one. At the end of last year jobless rates were, respectively, 5.
2% for black Americans and 3.7% for white people—equalling the narrowest gap on record. Even more striking are shifting tides in labour-force participation. About 63% of black Americans are now deemed to be either in work or searching for jobs, more than the 62% level for white Americans—an inversion of the pattern seen in previous decades. In part this reflects demographic differences, because the median white American is about a decade older than the median black American and thus more likely to be retired
Black Americans White Americans Employment Unemployment Labor Force Inequalities