Black Americans’ jobless rates higher

The labor market is recovering, but not as strongly for Black workers.

The unemployment rate for Black Americans improved slightly last month, but at 9.6 percent is still higher than all other race groups tracked and the national average of 6 percent, recent data from the Labor Department shows. Gaps persist between Black and white workers, including among those who are highly educated, the data shows.

Pandemic job cuts have disproportionately affected minority communities. Now, as the economy reopens, policymakers including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are watching closely to see whether employment gains are benefiting all workers.

“It’s slack in the labor market,” Powell said in response to a question about high rates of Black unemployment during a March 17 news conference. “It’s sad to see, because those disparities had really come down to record lows” before the pandemic.

The disparate impact on Black Americans reflects systemic discrimination, according to some economists. Case in point: Even Black workers with more education are faring worse than their white peers.

In March, the unemployment rate for Black workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 4.7 percent, compared with 3.6 percent for white Americans, according to Labor Department data that’s not seasonally adjusted. But that gap did shrink from the prior month. The disparity is nearly double between Black and white workers who graduated from high school, the data shows.