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It had an even more devastating financial impact on African Americans who are disproportionally represented in the service and gig industries and as essential workers who can’t work from home.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
According to CNBC, although Black unemployment in April only increased less than a percentage point, the road ahead may be challenging.
A broader picture of the unemployment rate includes the U-6 rate which incorporates the underemployed, including those in the gig economy (working for delivery services, ride-sharing or other independent jobs without benefits), those who have stopped looking for work and those who are unemployed in the traditional sense.
That rate, says Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities could more correctly be more than 30% for African Americans, he told CNBC.
(Graph via CNBC)
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“If you factor in all the things that you can explain using conventional economic tools — education, age, gender, experience — you will explain only a relatively small part of that difference,” said Bernstein, who worked with the Obama White House and is advising Joe Biden in his presidential campaign.
