The job market cools off as unemployment heats up, especially for Black Americans
Recent reports about the job market present a complicated and potentially worsening picture for U.S. job seekers.
If you feel like the job market is slow or even bad, it’s not all in your head. The job growth observed in 2022 and 2023, as the world left the shutdowns of 2020 and 2021 behind, has appeared to have slowed, if not stopped altogether, in some industries.
According to a report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday, job openings dropped for the second month in a row, from 7.91 million to 7.67 million.
USA Today reports that job growth has been averaging 170,000 new roles each month since April, which is down from 227,000 in the first four months of the year and down from 251,000 in 2023.
Meanwhile, CNN reports that the monthly jobs report for July’s gains of 114,000 jobs is far beneath expectations as the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from 4.1%.
For Black Americans, this has turned into a national 2:1 unemployment ratio compared to our white counterparts, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, meaning there are twice as many unemployed Black Americans as white Americans.
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Breaking this down state-by-state, the EPI learned that Kentucky is the only state with an unemployment rate of over 10% at 11.3% for Black Americans. Washington, D.C. was not far behind with a rate of 9.9%. The states with the lowest rates were South Dakota (3.1%), Vermont (3.3%), and Maryland (3.4%).
Shawn Williams, a Black job seeker based in the DMV region, told USA Today he’s resorted to searching outside his chosen industry of cannabis, to no avail.
“Most of the time, I’m not hearing [back] anything,” said Williams, 29. “I just think people are being very cautious right now and just trying to do what they can to save money.”
It’s not just that new jobs are hard to find, either. Americans in the workforce also report an overall feeling of lack of security and safety in their current jobs. Layoffs were up 20% in July compared to last year, per Labor Department data. Negotiating new job offers has also been down by almost half, with 26% (compared to over 40% on average) actually negotiating offers if they got them this year.
A puzzling job market coupled with a challenging economy has certainly proved fodder for an election year — and will likely be on many minds come November.
