Unemployment crisis hits Latino, Black and Asian Californians at higher rates than whites

As unemployment ticks down, some groups of Californians are still hurting worse than others.

A new report from the California Budget and Policy Center shows unemployment rates for Latinos, Blacks, Asian Americans and other Californians of color continue to exceed jobless rates for white residents.

The study uses an adjusted unemployment rate to account for people who are believed to be misclassified in federal data.

In August, the adjusted unemployment rate dropped slightly among whites to 13%. It was 15% for Latinos, 16% for Asian Americans, 19% for Blacks and 20% for other Californians of color, 20%.

Unemployment rates for women in the state remained at 14%, compared to the 12% unemployment rate men encountered.

The numbers are in keeping with trends the center documented since the outbreak hit in the early spring. The highest unemployment rates for Latinos, Black American, Asian Americans and other Californians of color since February reached 20% or more. For white people, the highest rate of unemployment since February reached 17%.

American Indians, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders and those who identify with more than one race are categorized as other Californians of color in the report.

“It doesn’t feel like a lot of people are really talking about how the recession is impacting different groups of Californians,” said Alissa Anderson, a senior analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center and author of the report. “If you’re not looking at how the recession is hitting black and brown Californians and women so much harder, you’re really missing the heart of the story.”

As of August, the state has been able to regain 34% of the jobs lost due to the pandemic.

But Black Californians have yet to see a meaningful decline in unemployment rates, according to Anderson.

“The unemployment rate for black Californians has not really improved at all. You know it reached 20% over the summer, and it’s now 19%, which really is not even a statistically significant change,” she said.

Immigrants in California, however, have seen a larger decline in unemployment rates.

At the peak of the recession, the unemployment rate among immigrants reached 25%, compared to the non-immigrants who encountered a 21% unemployment rate. In August, the rate for immigrants declined to 13%, matching the unemployment rate of non-immigrants.

The leisure and hospitality industry in California was among the hardest hit. Between February and April, nearly a million jobs were lost in that sector, according to the budget center’s report. As of August, 657,000 jobs of those jobs had not been regained.

A different report by the University of California, Merced’s Community and Labor Center estimates 289,059 jobs were lost among undocumented workers in the state.