Black, White, Men, Women: A Deeper Look at the Employment Numbers

The unemployment rate can go down for two reasons: Either more people have jobs or else more people have dropped out of the labor force and are no longer counted as unemployed. “Dropped out” means they’ve given up and are no longer looking for work.

September was a bad month for women, who dropped out of the labor force at twice the rate of men. It was even worse for Black workers, who dropped out at four times the rate of white workers. However, monthly data is noisy, so it’s usually better to look at longer-term figures. Here’s the dropout rate over the past year:

Black workers have dropped out of the labor force at nearly twice the rate of white workers. Now here’s actual employment:

Again, Black workers have lost their jobs at about twice the rate of white workers. Among white workers, women have lost their jobs at a rate that’s a third higher than men. Here’s the unemployment rate for September:

Taken together, men and women have done about the same during the pandemic recession. As usual, though, Black workers have done far worse than white workers, dropping out of the labor force and losing their jobs at about twice the rate of white workers. This is the same dynamic we see in nearly all recessions, and apparently the pandemic recession is no different.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate