Black, Latina women have lost work at 3 times the rate of white men

Leah Taylor loved her job as a bartender at Oakland International Airport. The pay was great, and she got to be a counselor and confidant for travelers scared of flying or heading to family funerals. But now, almost four months after the COVID-19 pandemic obliterated air travel and Taylor was laid off, she’s focused on trying to stay afloat.

“It was super hard to afford living here when people had jobs,” she said. “It’s a whole other level now.”

Taylor highlights a troubling trend among Black, Latinx and immigrant women, who have seen their jobs vanish at much higher rates during the coronavirus induced recession than their male counterparts.

Taylor, an Oakland resident, has been a bartender for about 19 years, the past six of those at the airport. She needs multiple medications for her asthma, which has only grown worse over time. Her free COBRA coverage through Unite Here Local 2850 expires at the end of July, and she doesn’t know how she’ll afford food, rent, her medicine and health coverage with just her unemployment checks.

“I’m really praying we can get back to work soon because I’m going to be in a terrible position if I don’t have medical coverage,” she said. “I cannot be without my medicine.”

Between March and May, the number of Black women working in California declined 23 percent from the previous threemonth period, while the number of Latinx women working dropped 22 percent, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from the California Budget & Policy Center. That’s nearly twice the rate of Black and Latinx men and more than three times the rate of white men.

Among white women, employment declined by 10 percent, and white men experienced the smallest drop of any group at 7 percent. Among immigrant workers, more women than men stopped working. Only Asian and Pacific Islander men had a larger decline than their female counterparts.