Commuters arrive at the Oculus station and mall in Manhattan on November 17, 2022 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The U.S. unemployment rate declined overall in December, but rose for black women and Hispanic men, according to the latest nonfarm payrolls report.
Black women saw unemployment increase to 5.5% last month, up 0.3 percentage points from 5.2% in November, data from the Labor Department showed Monday. Overall, Black employment remained steady at 5.7%, while the unemployment rate for Black men actually declined to 5.1% from 5.4% last month.
Meanwhile, Latinos saw unemployment rise to 4% in December, up 0.4 percentage points from 3.6% the previous month. The overall unemployment rate rose to 4.1% from 4.0%. Unemployment among Latino women also rose to 3.7% from 3.6%.
The figures bucked trends in the broader economy, which showed unemployment in the US fell to 3.5% from 3.7%. It was 0.2 percentage points below the consensus expectations of the Dow Jones.
“What we’ve seen in the last almost three years since the pandemic, is that we’ve regained, in terms of aggregate numbers, all the jobs lost,” said Michelle Holder, distinguished senior fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
“But the sort of industrial mix has changed, and it has a kind of impact on what we see with regard to the distribution of unemployment, by gender, race and ethnicity. And it’s really disaffecting Black women and Latinx people,” Holder added.
December’s stronger-than-expected jobs report continued to suggest a strong labor market, although softer-than-expected wage growth led some investors to hope that inflation may ease.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 223,000 in December, more than the Dow Jones estimate of 200,000. Meanwhile, average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month and gained 4.6% from a year ago. This compares with estimates of 0.4% and 5% increases.
“The labor market clearly remains strong,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “We are now seeing that the household survey and the salary survey are showing similar signs of strength, and wage growth appears to be slowing.”
Still, parts of the economy where black women are represented have not shown improvement, or failed to regain pre-pandemic levels, according to Holder. Government jobs were unchanged, adding just 3,000 jobs in December. In particular, state government education employment fell by 24,000 due to university employee strikes, according to the Department of Labor.
Black women and Latinos are also underrepresented in the leisure and hospitality sectors, according to Holder. The sector significantly increased employment in December, but remained below pre-pandemic levels. Employment in the sector increased by 67,000 last month, but was still 932,000, or 5.5%, lower than in February 2020.
“These are two industries that have not recovered well during the pandemic,” Holder said. “This is what limits the ability of black women to return to the state associated with the American workforce before the pandemic.”