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Newswire : Black jobless rate was 15.4 percent in June

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by BlackmansStreet.Today


The Black Unemployment rate June was 15.4 percent in June, down from 16.8 percent in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week.
The jobless rate for Black men, 20 and older, however, rose to 16.3 percent in June compared with 15.5 percent in May, BLS reported. However, the unemployment rate for Black women dipped to 14.0 percent with 16.5 percent in May.
Overall, the U.S. nonfarm payroll employment rose by 4.8 million in June on top of 2.7 million in May.
But, because so many jobs were lost in March and April, we are still 14.7 million jobs below where we were in February, before the pandemic spread, writes Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and
In June, jobs were added due to many states continuing to lift the stay at home requirements.
Job gains occurred primarily in leisure and hospitality, an increase of 2.1 million, a significant share of the overall rise of 4.8 million. The unemployment rate fell as well, from 13.3% in May to 11.1% in June. At 11.1%, the unemployment rate remains higher than in the worst month of the Great Recession, when it hit 10.0% in 2009.
Hires are up because states relaxed their stay-at-home orders concerning pandemic, but more economic pain is on the horizon because the latest coronavirus data is that the relaxed restrictions on social distancing also had the effect of increased cases leading to some states to pause re-openings. In Florida and Texas, Covid-19 cases are spreading. Texas surpassed 200,000 Covid-19 cases over the July 4 holiday.
Losses in public-sector employment will affect Black workers more, particularly Black women, Gould and Shierholz wrote. That’s because Black women have the highest share of jobs in the public sector.
The Black unemployment rate is much higher compared with other racial and ethnic groups.
BLS reported that the jobless rate for Hispanics was 14.5 percent and jobless rate for Asians was 13.8 percent. For Whites, the jobless rate was 10.1 percent. For white men, the unemployment rate was 9.0 percent.