The demographics of the unemployed – August 2020
Bottom Line: The demos of the unemployed tell a much more specific story about what's really going on in our labor market. As I do monthly, here are the government reported unemployment rates based on demographics:
- White: 9.2%(lower)
- Asians: 12.0%(lower)
- Hispanic: 12.9% (lower)
- Black: 14.6% (lower)
And by gender:
- Men – 9.4% (lower)
- Women – 10.5% (lower)
The most encouraging news is that every group benefited from the job gains in July with Hispanics making the biggest gains overall. There’s clearly a lot of work still to do to put all people back to work, especially minorities, however progress is progress and there was a lot of it across the board again in July. There remains a significant disconnect in the economy based on ethnicity, with Blacks having an unemployment rate that’s greater than 50% higher than whites. It’s especially a shame after having reached record low unemployment rates and record high incomes for Blacks just prior to the lockdowns. Will these jobs return? How long will it take for them to return? More questions than answers currently. Still progress is progress, and there was a lot of it in July. The August landscape is actually improved over July because of a slowing down in coronavirus cases, here’s to hoping we add to three months of consecutive job gains in August.
In the third part of today’s look at the employment report, we’ll look at how much money we’re making.