The Racial Gap In Economic Outcomes And What We Can Do About It
Written by Jasmin Sethi and published in Forbes.
The pandemic and recent protests have drawn significant attention to racial differences in the US. These differences show up in every economic outcome: unemployment, income, and wealth. The differences are exhibited both when looking at national statistics and when looking at particular states, including ones that are politically in play. Let us take a look at a few indicators that show how African Americans and Hispanics have fared relative to Whites.
Unemployment rates for Blacks and Hispanics have worsened in some political swing states. In particular, from the last quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2020, the Black unemployment rate in Pennsylvania has increased by 2.2 percentage points to 10.2%. In the same period, the White unemployment rate has decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.0%. Ohio has also seen a similar increase in its Black unemployment rate, rising to 9.0% in the beginning of 2020 from 6.9% in 2018, while the White unemployment rate has decreased to 3.3% from 4.3% during the same period.
