Black workers hit hard by COVID-19 job losses, analysis reveals

Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers to break down the hardships black workers are facing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, continuing this conversation again on coronavirus. We know that the virus has disproportionately impacted black communities and communities of color. And a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that black workers are facing greater economic and health insecurity from this virus.

So to chat more about this, we're joined now by Elise Gould. She's the Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute. So Elise, I want to start off first with this question of why that I think a lot of people have. The virus cannot see race, or ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. So talk us through actually how and why communities of color are being impacted more here?

ELISE GOULD: That's a great question. What we're seeing is that there are underlying health and economic conditions that have magnified the problems for African-American workers and their families in this country. So that when you have job losses that are happening across the board, white workers, black workers, Asian workers, Hispanic workers, right across the board you have workers losing their jobs.

Black workers are often, when we're compared to white workers, are least able to weather that storm, because they don't have the same kind of safety net that some other workers have. They've suffered-- suffered higher unemployment rates for a lot longer. They have significant wage gaps, have higher poverty rates. They simply don't have the wealth or the liquid savings to be able to smooth their consumption during this period and continue to providing for their needs when they have job losses.

KRISTIN MYERS: So, talking about that, you know, unemployment figure. We-- we have, you know, some of those numbers there. You know, talk to us about these differences in percentages. Because if you first are looking at this chart and you're looking at the overall unemployment figure for black workers compared to white workers, it doesn't seem as if black workers are being impacted that much more. So talk us through, you know, here how essentially this is a community that is being disproportionately more impacted?

ELISE GOULD: Sure, it's true. It is certainly true that workers overall have all lost their jobs. Lots of workers have lost their jobs. There are millions of people that have been claiming unemployment insurance benefits. I think that the report that we'll get on Friday will show that millions more have lost their jobs. It is pretty devastating across the board.

But when you look at the unemployment rates, they are significantly higher, let's say, for black women compared to white men. It's 16.9% for black women and 12.8% for white men. So that difference is significant, that is meaningful. That represents a lot of people in the economy. More people that are hurting in terms of proportionate to their population sizes, in terms of black women versus white men.

And again, I think it's really important when you talk about those job losses and the ability to weather that storm, and whether or not you have savings that can help tide you over or if you're more likely to be out on the street because you simply can't afford that rent or can't afford your mortgage, and because of historically higher unemployment rates for black workers as well. That means that they're more likely to have only one earner in the family. And so if they lose their job, then that's pretty much devastation. They've lost all of their income for their families.

KRISTIN MYERS: Speaking about those unemployment figures when it pertains to black women, especially compared to their white counterparts, but also their male counterparts, what is causing that difference there? Why are black women being impacted so much more?

ELISE GOULD: Well, in general, we think about there being more occupational segregation. Black women tend to be in certain occupations rather than in others. Historical discrimination has put them in that place that they are less likely to be promoted to certain positions, right? So there's all sorts of racism at play there. That wage gap is persistent however, if you look across education groups.

So, it's not simply a-- a matter of getting more education. Even college educated black workers have a much higher unemployment rate. They see a much-- a large wage gap with white college educated workers.

So, it happens across the board, and the liquidity that-- that black families have in terms of the amount of savings that they have to be able to draw on, that is much less than white households. Again, regardless of what kind of education they have, regardless of whether or not they're a homeowner, or what sector of the economy they've worked into, these are-- these are pervasive phenomenon.

KRISTIN MYERS: Elise, you and I have-- have chatted before about black workers. They tend to be, you know, lower wage, frontline workers when it-- when we're talking about this coronavirus pandemic. In your mind then is there a need for some sort of targeted stimulus going forward to these communities of color, or to these folks that are being more severely impacted?

ELISE GOULD: Yeah. When you talk about frontline workers, absolutely. Black workers are impacted much more than pretty much any other group, whether or not they're grocery store workers or transit workers. They are going to work every day and they are more likely to bring illness home to themselves and their families.

The fact that they're more likely to live in multigenerational households puts more people at risk of health conditions. So we need to make sure those people are paid adequately so that they can, not only as they're risking their health, but that they're actually getting a decent paycheck to be able to make ends meet. When we think about the policies that are being enacted right now, one of them was a check for households of $1,200.

Unfortunately, even if that's a race neutral policy, it does not get enacted equally across the population. What we know are black households are less likely to have a bank account. So the unbanked, it's hard to get them those checks. And so you think you might be imposing a race neutral policy, it does not get enacted like that across the country.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right. We'll leave that there. Elise Gould, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Thank you so much for joining us today.

ELISE GOULD: Thank you.