page_title: Unemployment in the United States
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: Unemployment in the United States / Demographics and employment trends / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. employment levels by two key measures, the civilian employment level and total non-farm payroll. Changes in the latter are commonly reported as the number of jobs created or lost from month to month.
context_page_description: Unemployment in the United States discusses the causes and measures of U.S. unemployment and strategies for reducing it. Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as economic conditions, global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors can affect the number of workers, the duration of unemployment, and wage levels.
context_section_description: In recent decades, Asians had the lowest unemployment rate as a racial group, followed by whites, Hispanics, and blacks. The New York Times reported some of the causes and consequences of higher black unemployment in February 2018: "Even at the low of 6.8 percent recorded in December [2017] — it climbed back to 7.7 percent in January — the unemployment level for black Americans would qualify as a near crisis for whites. And the relative gains have not erased disparities in opportunity and pay. A tight labor market alone can’t undo a legacy of unequal school funding, residential segregation or the disproportionate rate of incarceration for black Americans. Nor can it reverse the gradual shift of well-paying jobs from inner cities to mostly white suburbs. Studies have found that discrimination in hiring and pay persists even in good economic times, making parity an elusive goal."
  The unemployment rate for African Americans rose from 7.6% in August 2007 to a peak of 17.3% in January 2010, before falling back to 8.2% by May 2016. For Latinos over the same periods, the rates were 5.5%, 12.9% and 5.6% respectively. For Asians, the rates were 3.4%, 8.4%, and 3.9%.
  Whites saw their employment levels fall more than non-whites over the 2007–2016 period, as a relatively larger number of white persons moved out of the prime working age (25–54) and into retirement. The number of white workers fell by approximately 700,000 from November 2007 (pre-crisis) to November 2016, while the number of workers of other races rose. Hispanics added approximately 4.9 million (+24%), Asian 2.3 million (+34%), and African Americans 2.3 million (+14%). These racial disparities may have helped the Trump campaign with the white working class voters in 2016. While the age 25–54 white population fell about 5% from November 2007 to November 2016, which would correspond with a declining number of whites employed, whites also had a larger decline in the employment to population ratio than non-whites.
caption: U.S. employment levels by two key measures, the civilian employment level and total non-farm payroll. Changes in the latter are commonly reported as the number of jobs created or lost from month to month.
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