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Public sector's slower job recovery is hurting Black employment
Yahoo Money
Public sector’s slower job recovery is hurting Black employment
Ella Vincent
Fri, March 11, 2022, 1:38 PM
While the job market continues to rebound, the public sector’s slower recovery is creating a roadblock for Black employment.
In February, employers added 678,000 jobs, with the federal, state and local governments filing 24,000 new positions. But the number of state and local government jobs is still 695,000 positions short of its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. With nearly 1-in-5 Black workers in public sector and government jobs, that lag weighs on the Black unemployment rate, which last month stood at 6.6%, or double the white unemployment rate.
The reduction in government jobs during the pandemic continues a long-tailed trend in the public sector, according to experts, and could lead to the widening of the racial wealth gap in the country if left unaddressed.
“When you see cuts to the public sector, that’s a cut that will disproportionately affect the Black community,” Kyle Moore, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, told Yahoo Money. “Wealth is so porous in the Black community, so those that do have wealth have to be called upon to support the community. Because there are so few safety nets, that contributes to the wealth gap.”
{snip}
Public sector’s slower job recovery is hurting Black employment
Ella Vincent
Fri, March 11, 2022, 1:38 PM
While the job market continues to rebound, the public sector’s slower recovery is creating a roadblock for Black employment.
In February, employers added 678,000 jobs, with the federal, state and local governments filing 24,000 new positions. But the number of state and local government jobs is still 695,000 positions short of its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. With nearly 1-in-5 Black workers in public sector and government jobs, that lag weighs on the Black unemployment rate, which last month stood at 6.6%, or double the white unemployment rate.
The reduction in government jobs during the pandemic continues a long-tailed trend in the public sector, according to experts, and could lead to the widening of the racial wealth gap in the country if left unaddressed.
“When you see cuts to the public sector, that’s a cut that will disproportionately affect the Black community,” Kyle Moore, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, told Yahoo Money. “Wealth is so porous in the Black community, so those that do have wealth have to be called upon to support the community. Because there are so few safety nets, that contributes to the wealth gap.”
{snip}