These groups have been hit especially hard by California’s unemployment surge
Women, people under 25 and people of color are getting hit the hardest by the massive cutbacks in jobs, a new study has found.
California’s unemployment rate jumped from 5.5 percent in March to an all-time high of 15.5 percent last month, and those groups have been seeking jobless benefits far more often than whites and older workers, according to a new study by the California Policy Lab at UCLA.
One big reason is that they tend to work disproportionately in areas where the economy has been battered by the coronavirus outbreak, such as retail, lodging and food services.
“That’s the most obvious explanation,” said Till von Wachter, faculty director of the California Policy Lab, which conducts regular studies of the state’s employment situation.
The findings were no surprise to those who follow and study employment trends. Unemployment among young people and people of color has long been higher than unemployment for whites.
During the coronavirus pandemic, which sent the economy reeling in mid-March, the state’s Employment Development Department, which manages the unemployment insurance program, has processed about 5.1 million claims.
“The sectors of the economy that have been hardest hit by the current crisis are primarily low-wage, which disproportionately impacts young workers and people of color,” said Steve Smith, California Labor Federation communications director.
While this is not a new dynamic, he said, “The crisis just exposed these inequities on a scale we’ve never seen.”
Since the coronavirus outbreak triggered the economy’s collapse in mid-March, the California Policy Lab found about 20 percent of all new unemployment claims in Sacramento County have come from people who had been employed in accommodations and food service. Another 15.6 percent were in retail trade and 13.2 percent were in health and social services.
Those percentages were far higher than in most other fields, and were similar to those in Stanislaus County, Fresno County and the state’s other urban areas.
Statewide, it was people of color, women, younger people and those with less education who sought unemployment most frequently.
Von Wachter said younger people who have less education or are lower skilled are vulnerable as restaurants, hotels and other service organizations close.
Last month, the state lost 866,200 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, more than twice as much as the losses in the next highest sector, trade, transportation and utilities.
The nonpartisan California Budget & Policy Center found that in February, the average leisure and hospitality worker earned $548 a week, or $28,500 annually. Low-paying industries had a 26.8 percent decline from February to April, well above the losses in better-paying jobs.
People aged 25-50 are more likely to be retained, he said, because they are not as costly as older workers and “they tend to be highly productive,” von Wachter said.
Older employees often have the option of retiring or are more likely to qualify for disability payments.
Among the findings:
▪ Women. They filed 51.5 percent of the unemployment claims even though they make up about 45 percent of the workforce. By May 9, nearly one of every four women in the workforce had sought unemployment relief.
▪ Young people. More than one of three people aged 20-24 in the workforce have sought benefits. That’s far higher than any other grouping; next highest are ages 16-19 at 29.1 percent and 25-34 at 26.2 percent Older age groups are 19 percent or less.
▪ Blacks and Asians. Roughly 1 in 4 black and Asian workers has sought unemployment benefits, compared to 1 in 5 whites.
Part of the reason for the high percentage among Asian-Americans could be that they are more likely to quarantine and tend to have higher percentages of workers in the healthcare field. While there’s been a demand for certain health care practitioners, there have also been cuts in fields not related to the coronavirus outbreak, von Wachter said.
The study found 60 percent of black workers filing a claim between April 26 and May 9 thought they would be recalled to their jobs , about 9 percentage points lower than whites.
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