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by 2 minutes People in line are seen reflected in a car window outside a newly reopened employment center for in-person appointments in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Reuters/Amira Karaoud – According to U.S. employment data released on Friday, the number of Black persons working or searching for work climbed in June, a good sign for a group affected hard by the epidemic job losses. However, the unemployment rate increased, indicating that many people who began seeking for work had yet to find one. As more people worked or looked for new jobs, the labor force participation rate for Black employees increased to 61.6 percent in June, up from 60.9 percent in May. In June, the percentage of Black workers employed increased to 55.9%, up from 55.4 percent in May. White employees, on the other hand, had their labor force participation rate decline to 61.3 percent from 61.4 percent, while their share of employed white workers fell to 58.1 percent from 58.3 percent. According to William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and top economist for the AFL-CIO labor group, the faster comeback in labor force participation for Black employees implies that unemployment benefits may not be preventing Black people from seeking for job. The unemployment rate for Black employees increased slightly to 9.2% in June, up from 9.1% in May, and mirrored a similar increase in the general unemployment rate, which increased to 5.9% in June from 5.8%. The difference in unemployment rates between blacks and whites remained steady at 4 percentage points. This is down from 5% at the height of the pandemic, but it is nearly twice as large as it was in August 2019, when the difference between Black and white workers decreased to a record low of 1.8 percentage points. The unemployment rates for Black and Hispanic workers are still 3 percentage points higher than before the epidemic, while the general unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for white workers have both increased by 2 percentage points since February 2020. Jonnelle Marte contributed reporting, and Andrea Ricci edited the piece./nRead More

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