Black American workers are being hit harder by the deep cuts to state and city budgets resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. Before the dawn of the coronavirus, jobs in the public sector were among some of the most stable. However, that has changed, and much like most things, the Black community is suffering the worst because of it.
One reason is Black American workers make up a large percentage of those holding government jobs – with one in six of them holding positions within the public sector, reported the Financial Times.
Kyra Hahn – who was a youth service librarian in Portland, Oregon – was one of them. After settling for a voluntary lay-off after her job was eliminated due to covid, Hahn had to move back home to Denver, Colorodo until she could figure out her next steps.
“I had this very delicate financial balance where I was able to maintain all my living expenses in Portland but that was dependent on nothing going wrong,” Hahn, 47, told the Times.
Almost 130,000 workers across state and local government lost their jobs in October, according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are more cuts pending, which means even more Black Americans will be left economically depressed.
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“That’s a very significant loss and I think unfortunately that could just be the tip of the iceberg because a lot of these budget crunches haven’t fully manifested yet,” said economist David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank. “There’s a lot of loss of jobs that are potentially going to fall very heavily on workers of colour.”
President-elect Joe Biden warned if Republicans and Democrats in Congress can’t come to a resolution soon, more essential workers will be lost.
“You’re going to see hundreds of thousands of police officers, firefighters, first responders, mental health clinics, you’re going to see them going out of business,” Biden said in a speech.
The Economic Policy Institute said the issue is further exacerbated for Black American workers because of pre-existing social inequities, racism and an immense wealth gap in a recent report that details a variety of social ills covid has compounded.
“The disparate racial impact of COVID-19 illustrated in this report should come as no surprise given the ongoing legacy of racism that continues to produce unequal outcomes affecting nearly every aspect of life in the United States,” the report states.
