According to a new report, the gap between black and white unemployment in New York City is the widest in a century, surpassing even the biggest gap during the Great Recession.
In the first three months of the year, the unemployment rate for black New Yorkers rose to 12.2%, the highest of any group, while the unemployment rate for whites fell to 1.3%, the lowest since 2000. I was. according to reports, was released Thursday by the New School’s New York City Affairs Center. The unemployment rate for New Yorkers as a whole was 5.3% for him.
New York City’s figures don’t match the national picture. Nationally, the unemployment rate for blacks was 5.4% in the first quarter of this year, and the unemployment rate for whites was 3.2%. National figures include black Hispanic job seekers, but New York data does not.
New York City’s black and white unemployment rates have not diverged continuously for at least a year in about 25 years, and that’s happening at a time when black unemployment rates across the nation are nearing new lows, the consensus says. Author James A. Parrott says: At the center is the director of the Economic and Fiscal Policy Bureau.
Rising inequality now threatens the city’s recovery from the pandemic and could exacerbate income inequality in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Apparent racial disparities in unemployment rates are due to a variety of factors, including differences in the types of jobs black and white New Yorkers do, racism in the hiring process, and historical differences in job qualifications rooted in past discriminatory policies. doing. said the expert.
Between 2020 and the end of 2021, coronavirus-related regulations were among the toughest in the country, with 310,000 New Yorkers out of work due to permanent business closures and another 406,000 out of work due to job cuts, Parrott said. said the doctor.
But the unemployment gap cannot be fully explained by these losses alone. The hardest-hit industries were ‘face-to-face’ transactions such as retail, construction and hospitality. These losses disproportionately affected Latino workers, who got their jobs back faster than black New Yorkers.
According to Dr. Parrott, some of the industries that created the most jobs in New York last year were technology and finance, which are disproportionately profitable for white and Asian job seekers.
This report used seasonally adjusted data according to the method used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
After unemployment rates for both whites and blacks declined throughout 2021, the unemployment rate for blacks began to rise again in the first quarter of 2022 as the unemployment rate for whites continued to decline. The gap between the two nearly doubled, from 5.2% to 10.9%, Dr. Parrott said. The last time the unemployment rate came close to this was during the Great Recession, when he was 10.3% in the first half of 2009.
“This kind of sustained divergence has never happened, at least not in this century,” said Dr. Parrott. “Race-based discrimination is a big part of it,” he said, noting that data shows black job seekers are often the last ones selected for job openings.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation, which uses a different method of analysis, reported on Friday that the unemployment rate for blacks rose to 10.4% and that for whites fell to 2.5%.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams said New York City has created more than 250,000 private sector jobs since taking office last year.
“But that opportunity is not shared equally. We are working aggressively to help New Yorkers disproportionately affected by the pandemic and to rebuild a fair economy that addresses high unemployment among black New Yorkers.” “I’m taking action,” he said.
Barrika Williams, executive director of the Neighborhood Housing Development Association, a nonprofit housing and economic justice coalition, said city and state policies to boost job growth are doing enough for the hardest-hit communities. said it was not focused on
“The recovery is not happening evenly across the city,” she said.
“I am shocked that the unemployment rate is higher now than it was in the Covid-19 era,” she added.
Ronnie Coaxum, 60, said he was laid off in 2020 after working for 36 years in the food and beverage department at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Job hunting was difficult for him. On Thursday, he moved south from his home in the Bronx to his center of career in Harlem in search of his job.
“I’ve had a temporary job. I was a security guard,” he said. “I work in maintenance and I’m just bouncing around.”
He wasn’t surprised by the widening racial gap in unemployment. “It always was,” he said. “I feel it in job interviews, but as long as you’re yourself, it’s fine. I don’t let that bother you.
Job hunting for young people is also difficult. About 17% of New Yorkers in the workforce between the ages of 18 and 24 are unemployed, according to the report, and young black men are disproportionately represented in that group.
And for black men with criminal records, the search can be doubly difficult, said Christopher Watler, executive vice president of the Center for Employment Opportunities, a career development agency for people with criminal records. I’m here.
Raliek Mitchiner, 22, who was convicted as a minor, said he hadn’t received a call about some of the jobs he applied for since 2021. “Nobody knows I’m a good worker and a good person. It sucks.”
Myitkyina began working as a paid intern at the Center for Employment Opportunities in January and also works night shifts as a support specialist at a mental health facility in the Bronx.
The first position was open to him because of his past beliefs. He landed second thanks to a relative who introduced him to him for the role.
On Thursday, Xanay Anderson, 19, waited at the Department of Labor office in downtown Brooklyn hoping to renew her unemployment benefits application she filed six weeks ago.
“They were useless,” said Ms. Anderson. “All they said is they’re still reviewing.”
Anderson lost her job as a case manager at a nonprofit social services agency in March. There she helped connect homeless people with shelters and mental health services. She lives with her mother in a domestic violence shelter in Flatbush after escaping physical abuse in North Carolina last year.
In North Carolina, Anderson worked as a restaurant manager and was preparing to go to college for a two-year degree. She plans to attend college in New York and hopes to be able to move out of her shelter and into her dorm room.
But first, she wants to work. “I have a lot of experience,” she said, citing her past roles in customer service and childcare.
Until earlier this week, when she received a call from a social service provider in Brooklyn, her search for a new job was progressing “horribly,” she said.
Her next stop was to visit her employer’s office for fingerprinting and background checks.
Wesley Parnell and Sean Piccoli contributed to the report.
