In the previous month, the overall unemployment rate for Black people climbed to 3.8%, which is known to be the highest since February 2022.
It came as the labor force participation rate—a measure of the number of people who are employed or seeking employment—climbed to 62.8%, which is forecast to be its highest level since February 2020.
Earlier in August, the jobless rate declined for Black workers to 5.3%, as compared to 5.8% in July.
However, while calculating for gender, the unemployment rate for Black men aged 20 and older came down to 5%, which is estimated to be a decline from the rate of 5.3% in July.
Black women, on the other hand, saw their jobless rate decline to 4.7%, in comparison to 5.2% the previous month.
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said, “I am relieved that the Black unemployment rate is coming down; it had been a little elevated a couple of months earlier.”
“Hopefully that’s a positive trend,” she added.
However, the labor force participation rate was little changed among black workers from the previous month. Further, in August, it came in at 62.6%, in comparison to 62.7% in July.
Later in the previous month, the jobless rate for Asians and Hispanics moved higher.
The unemployment rate among Asians surged to 3.1% in August from 2.3% in the previous month. Hispanics, on the other hand, saw their jobless rate increase to 4.9%, which was up from 4.4% in comparison to the previous month.
“The household data underlying the racial and ethnicity figures are based on smaller sample sizes, so there can be significant volatility from one month to the next,” Gould noted.
Moreover, in the latest release, a potential area of concern emerged, which exhibited a decline in jobs in the state and local government education space. Also in August, local government education payrolls declined by more than 10,000, while state government education jobs declined by nearly 5,000.
“State and local education fell,” said Gould, adding that she is keeping an eye on that sector as it’s a notable employer of Black workers, including women.
“That sector is concerning, especially as students go back to school this month,” she said.
- Published By Team Genuine Reporter