Unemployment and Inequality

The Black unemployment rate is consistently double the White unemployment rate + Bloomberg covered the launch of Americaninequality.io!

🎉 Bloomberg CityLab wrote up an article on American Inequality and the impact that the data has been able to make in communities!

Don’t forget to check out the new data portal and analysis tool that we just launched at Americaninequality.io.

Using the data for a project? Email me at Americaninequality@substack.com and I’d love to feature it in an upcoming post!

🇺🇸 In May 2022, President Biden celebrated the most recent employment data by proclaiming in a press release, “The unemployment rate did not increase in any of our 50 states.” He was right, but he wasn’t telling the full story. 

The US is currently experiencing historically low levels of unemployment. Only roughly 3 out of every 100 workers doesn’t have a job. The number of Americans relying on unemployment insurance is at its lowest level in half a century. But when we look at how unemployment shows up in more detailed regions, we see inequality. 

Millions still left behind amidst job growth

The US added more than half a million jobs in July 2022, with many headlines declaring that  America has now regained all of the jobs lost during the pandemic. 

⚖️ Those gains are not equally distributed. 

5.9 million people are not in the labor force and currently want a job, which is nearly a million more people than in February 2020 before the pandemic hit in the US. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the prior 4 weeks. Just because you’re at your 5th week, doesn’t mean you aren’t trying to get back into work. The headline unemployment rate often obfuscates underlying inequality.