During the coronavirus pandemic, the phrase “we’re all in this together” has become a battle cry. While it is true that Covid-19 has had an influence on everyone in some manner, the amount and type of that impact have been far from universal. In May, the jobless rate for Black Americans reached an all-time high in a decade. Despite an economy-wide decrease in unemployment following corona virus-driven record highs in March and April, jobless rates are blowing through the roof. With the existing statistics, economists projected that the jobless rate would increase as high as 19 percent, but a better-than-expected 13.3 percent unemployment rate was only reported in May. Also see: hire black site
But it was a different thing altogether for Black Americans, whose jobless rate soared to 16.8 percent in May, a tiny increase from the 16.7 percent figure in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to BLS figures, the Black American jobless rate in May was likewise the highest in more than a decade. According to the same study, Hispanics had an unemployment rate of 17.6 percent in May, down from 18.9 percent the previous month but remained the highest among all racial and ethnic groups polled by the BLS. The labor market began to deteriorate in March before plummeting to a halt in April. While job losses have undoubtedly persisted, the April data provides the first glimpse of how Black and white employees fare. Do check: hiring black job portal
According to Bloomberg, the employment disparity between Black and white people reached a low point in August 2019, when Black unemployment was 3.4 percentage points greater than white unemployment. This disparity widened to 4.4 percentage points in May, wiping off most of the progress achieved in closing the gap since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. To date, evidence shows that Black and Hispanic employees experience significantly more economic and health insecurity as a result of covid-19 than working-class whites. Some believe the virus’s uneven racial impact is firmly based on historical and present social and economic inequalities.
The unjust impact of the coronavirus epidemic on minorities, as well as public outrage over the shooting of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, have brought racial and ethnic inequities to the forefront of political discourse months before the November presidential election.
The global impact of covid-19, both in terms of lives lost and economic destruction, is likely to be felt for many years to come. The greatest way forward is to ensure that the hard lessons gained during this crisis are used to adequately prepare us for the next one. The pandemic’s disproportionate racial impact should come as no surprise given the country’s persistent heritage of racism, which continues to create unequal outcomes in every facet of life. As a result, we must all work hard to solve the long-standing underlying racial inequalities in the economy.
