CNN
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When former President Donald Trump last week asserted his unsubstantiated claim that immigrants are “taking black jobs,” the phrase once again became Internet fodder.
On social media, often accompanied by the hashtags #blackjob or #blackjobs, people (including celebrities) have shared their “black jobs,” pushing their racist views of race and languages of people from other countries.
Trump later clarified, during his speech at the National Association of Black Journalists, that “Black Jobs” applies to all jobs held by Black Americans and others, and that he was raising the alarm about possible dangers at work.
However, the discussion comes as Black workers have made great strides — and, in many cases, career advancement. They also occur at a time when the labor market appears to be in a downturn.
“This is the biggest economy we’ve seen for Black people in our lifetime, and, arguably, ever, but there’s still huge inequality,” the said Algernon Austin, director of racial and economic justice at the Center for Economic Research and Policy. “Unemployment rates are very low, employment rates are high, wages are high, incomes are high, poverty is low, wealth is high. These are good, but all those steps still have huge racial gaps and a lot of work to do. ”
In February, the employment rate for black workers (ages 25 to 54) was the same as the 78.6% it was in April 2020, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In July, that rate was 77.9%.
By comparison, the prime-age employment rate was 80.9% in July, BLS data show.
More broadly, the overall employment and population rate for Black workers age 16 and older was 59.2% in July, remaining near a 20-year high.
“So, to suggest that immigration lowers the black employment rate is unhelpful, based on this view of reality,” Algernon said. “But again, there’s been a lot of economic research and analysis on this, and there’s no good evidence for this.”
In April of last year, the unemployment rate for Black workers dropped to a low of 4.8%. It has been taken to the top, and it it held up well in July at 6.3%. It’s a rotation where it was in January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Earlier this year, the labor force participation rate (the share of working-age people who are actively engaged in the workforce, either working or looking for work) for Black workers aged 16 and than they reached 64%, which is the highest number in 16 years. . As of July, that rate was 63.2%.
In comparison, the overall labor force participation rate (which stood at 62.7% in July) has not reached pre-pandemic levels. The overall rate has fallen significantly since 2000, when it peaked at 67.3%. It has remained below pre-pandemic levels mostly because of to demographic changes, including Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, the epidemic accelerating early retirement, Covid deaths and workers staying at home due to prolonged Covid or for caregiving purposes.
Therefore, the rate of early working years still speaks volumes about labor force participation in this post-crisis economy. In July, that overall rate hit a 24-year high of 84%. For Black workers aged 25 to 54, the rate was 82.7%, just shy of the record 82.8% reached in March.
The data presents a favorable working environment for Black workers; however, many disparities persist, said Valerie Wilson, a labor economist and director of the nonprofit EPI Action advocacy Institute.
The recovery from the pandemic and the economic growth since then has boosted the wages of many workers, including black workers, he noted.
“Even at historic lows, Black Americans still have the highest unemployment rate of any racial or ethnic group reported in monthly BLS statistics,” Wilson said. said. “We talk a lot about the 2 to 1 ratio between Black and White unemployment (the Black unemployment rate is usually double the White unemployment rate), therefore, progress has been minimal in terms of that difference.”
In July, the unemployment rate for White workers was 3.8% (versus 6.3% for Black workers).
“In recent years, in the last two years or so, we’ve seen that (the Black-White income gap) has been going down,” he said. But although the gap has narrowed, it has not closed.
Another important disparity that persists is the issue of job segregation: Many jobs are still disproportionately held by black or Hispanic workers, Julia Pollak, a senior researcher at economy with ZipRecruiter, told CNN in an email.
“For example, according to BLS data, black workers make up only 12.8% of all employed Americans, but 48.4% of postal workers, 38.1% of nursing assistants, and 36.1% of janitors,” Pollak said. . “Similarly, Hispanic workers make up only 18.8% of employed Americans, but 74.3% of drywall installers, 63.1% of roofers, and 61.1% of carpet installers.”
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