By WSJ Noted. 

Black workers at every level of educational attainment have substantially higher unemployment rates than white workers, according to Labor Department data. The expanding gap signals Black Americans can expect to have a longer and slower recovery from the 2020 economic recession, regardless of whether they have attended college or not completed high school.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. The difference is more pronounced for workers with less education.

For Black Americans to have the same job prospects as whites, they often need to hold more-advanced credentials. Black workers with just a bachelor's degree had a 6.1% average unemployment rate in the 12 months ended in October, compared with a 4.8% unemployment rate for white workers with the same level of education, according to the Labor Department. Black workers with only a high-school diploma had a 12.1% average unemployment rate over the past year, above the 7.4% rate for similar white workers, and above the 10.1% rate for white high-school dropouts. "Frequently, Black workers need to send additional signals about their qualifications to get the same job," said Bradley Hardy, an economist at American University in Washington. "That's why you'll see a Black person with a master's degree in a job that only requires a bachelor's."

2. The unemployment gap between Black and white workers has widened.

Black workers have been disproportionately impacted by job losses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in part because they held more of the jobs that were lost this year, including in the transportation, hospitality and retail sectors. In June of 2019, the average unemployment rate for white workers with a bachelor's was just 0.7 percentage points lower than it was for Black workers, whereas in October this year, it was 1.2 percentage points lower.

3. The impact could be far reaching.

The discrepancies signal that Black Americans can expect to have a longer and slower recovery from the 2020 economic recession. Lower earnings and weaker employment prospects for Black workers have costs for society overall, said Michelle Holder, an economist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. It means fewer dollars are earned, spent and taxed in Black communities. Higher rates of unemployment and poverty are associated with less stable families, higher rates of incarceration and worse health outcomes. The people living in those communities often require additional public assistance, such as food stamps and Medicaid. "One way or another, America will bear the burden of this," she said. "Higher incarceration, higher Covid-19 deaths of Black people, more tax dollars spent. The bill will come due."

Read the original article by Eric Morath here.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 02, 2020 20:29 ET (01:29 GMT)

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