On the persistence of the Black-White unemployment gap
The restrictions inside the labor markets of the United States have resulted in a humungous unemployment gap between black and white people. The government deprived the African Americans of opportunities that would help them get higher standards in life. As a result, they get stuck in jobs that do not provide the protection of labor laws. Besides, these laws put them in a position to work overtime and settle for low wages. According to the data collected by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics regarding the unemployment rate of African American men, the rate of unemployment in black people is always less than twice the unemployment rate in white people except for the time during the great recession. Also see: hire black page here
The drop in the rate happened when the recession began and continued to stay the same for a few months.
Some recent studies by the Brookings Institution show that the unemployment rate is much more miserable in some metro areas with a high population of African-Americans. Besides, the 2019 issue of the Center for American progress stated the prevalence of the unemployment rate gap between the black and white. The unemployment rate of veteran African Americans is higher than that of American veterans. Nevertheless, taking only the unemployment rate into account and calculating the economic progress of the United States has its drawbacks. For example, the rate of unemployment has nothing to do with the power of the labor market and, you can show that more efficiently using the Employment to Population ratio (EPOP). Now it’s easy to hire blacks with this portal: black hiring official site
The Standard Unemployment rate reports do not give you all the necessary details about the employment rates. That is why it is indispensable to look into various labor market variables to get a clear picture. The major drawback of the standard unemployment record is that it only has reports of unemployed people looking for jobs. It has no records about the ones that are not looking for jobs actively though they are unemployed. There are other labor market measures you can rely on, like the Labor Force Population Rate (LFPR). It is the calculation of the part of the whole population in the labor force. There is a colossal fall in the EPOP and LFPR rates after the recession. The decrease in the EPOP rate especially makes the doubling of unemployment rates in African Americans unreasonable and pointless.
A working paper of the Federal Reserve recently stated that it is impossible to differentiate the unemployment rate gap between African Americans and whites using the common market factors like education, marital status, age, geography, and more. However, they also believe racial discrimination could be one of the unexplainable factors that cause this massive gap in the unemployment rates. After the great recession, the economy of the United States has got a lot better. The vital cause of this recovery is the fall of the unemployment rate of African American men from 19.3 percent to 5.1 percent.
In conclusion, we must understand that focusing on the unemployment level cannot change anything in the economy unless policymakers start focusing on the racial gaps. The only possible way is to fight and make changes in the labor market structurally to fill these gaps. Therefore, by shifting the focus from the workers to structural barriers, you can find positive results.
