An autoworker works on a Chevrolet Volt at General Motors, Hamtramck, Mich., July 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose in June and payroll employment overall rose by a lower-than-expected 209,000, suggesting the possibility of an economic slowdown and a Federal Reserve rate hike in July.
The superheated labor market saw Black unemployment fall to record lows earlier this year.
The unemployment rate for whites fell in June to 3.1 percent while Black unemployment has risen from a record low of 4.7 percent in April to 6 percent unemployment in June.
That’s the highest Black unemployment since August and almost double white unemployment.
By comparison, June unemployment was 4.3 percent for Hispanics, 3.2 percent for Asians and 3.6 percent overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“A wide body of research shows that Black workers are the first to lose their jobs in economic downturns,” Lauren Kaori Gurley and Abha Bhattarai wrote for the Washington Post.
The gap between jobless rates for white and Black Americans narrowed to 1.8 percentage points in March, the lowest since the Labor Department began tracking it 50 years ago, Reuters reported.
The Dow Jones consensus estimated that jobs would grow by 240,000 in June, CNBC reported. Instead, the 209,000 jobs created in June is down significantly from May’s total of 306,000 and represents the slowest month for job creation since payrolls fell by 268,000 in December 2020.
“This is not as strong of a jobs report as we’ve had expected, but it’s representative of a labor market that is healthy and improving,” said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Economic Innovation Group, in a Washington Post report. “We’ve had millions of people return to the labor market [over the past year] and seen inflationary pressures fall without creating any job loss whatsoever.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was criticized in March by Democratic lawmakers who accused him of trying to orchestrate a slowdown in hiring that would put historically vulnerable populations — especially Black people — at the greatest risk of job losses.
