The unemployment gap between black and white New Yorkers is widening

The gap between black and white unemployment rates in New York City is now the widest it’s been this century, surpassing even the widest gap during the Great Recession, according to a new report.

In the first three months of the year, the unemployment rate for black New Yorkers rose to 12.2 percent, the highest rate of any group, while the white unemployment rate fell to 1.3 percent, the lowest since 2000. according to the report, which was released Thursday by The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs. The overall unemployment rate among New Yorkers was 5.3 percent.

New York City’s numbers are out of step with the national picture. The nationwide black unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in the first quarter of the year and the white unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. National figures include Black Hispanic job seekers, while the New York data does not.

Black and white unemployment rates in New York City have not diverged continuously for at least a year in about 25 years, and it happens at a time when black unemployment across the country is nearing new lows, said James A. Parrott, a co-author of the report and the Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy.

The widening gap now threatens the city’s recovery from the pandemic, potentially exacerbating income inequality in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

The stark racial disparities in unemployment stem from a variety of factors, including the differences in the types of jobs black and white New Yorkers work, racism in the workforce and historical disparities in job qualifications rooted in past discriminatory policies, experts say .

From 2020 to the end of 2021, with some of the strictest Covid-related regulations in the country, 310,000 New Yorkers lost their jobs to permanent business closures and another 406,000 to downsizing, said Dr. parrot.

But the unemployment gap is not fully explained by those losses. The industries most affected were face-to-face occupations such as retail, construction and hospitality. Those losses disproportionately affected Latino workers, who have regained their jobs faster than Black New Yorkers.

And some of the industries that added the most jobs in New York last year were technology and finance, leading to disproportionate gains for white and Asian job seekers, said Dr. parrot.

The report used seasonally adjusted data, according to a methodology used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

After both white and black unemployment fell in 2021, black unemployment began to rise again in the first quarter of 2022, while white unemployment continued to fall. The gap between the two has since roughly doubled, from 5.2 percentage points to 10.9 percentage points, said Dr. parrot. The last time the unemployment gap came close to that was during the Great Recession, when it stood at 10.3 percentage points compared to the first half of 2009.

“This kind of sustained divergence has never happened before,” said Dr. Parrott, at least in this century. “Racism is a big part of that,” he said, noting that data shows that black job seekers are often among the last ones chosen for job openings.

The city’s Economic Development Corporation, using a different method of analysis, reported Friday that black unemployment had risen to 10.4 percent, while white unemployment had fallen to 2.5 percent.

In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams said New York City has added more than 250,000 private sector jobs since taking office last year.

“But that opportunity is not evenly distributed and we are taking aggressive action to rebuild an equitable economy that helps New Yorkers who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and to address the high unemployment rate among Black New Yorkers,” said he.

City and state policies to boost job growth aren’t focusing enough on the hardest-hit communities, said Barika Williams, executive director of the Association of Neighborhood and Housing Development, a nonprofit coalition for housing and economic justice.

“Recovery isn’t happening evenly across the city,” she said, especially in predominantly black neighborhoods.

“That we are now in a bigger unemployment gap than we were in Covid feels shocking,” she added.

Ronnie Coaxum, 60, said he was laid off in 2020 from a position in the food and beverage department of the Marriott Marquis hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where he had worked for 36 years. The job search was difficult; on Thursday he traveled from his home in the South Bronx to a career center in Harlem, looking for work.

“I’ve done agency work, I’ve done security,” he said. “I’ve done maintenance jobs, just bouncing around.”

He was not surprised by the growing racial disparity in the unemployment rate. “It’s always been that way,” he said. “I feel it in job interviews, but I just have to be myself. I’m not deterred by it.”

Looking for a job has also been difficult for young people. According to the report, about 17 percent of New Yorkers in the labor force between the ages of 18 and 24 were unemployed, with young black men disproportionately represented in that group.

And for black men who have previous criminal convictions, the search can be doubly difficult, said Christopher Watler, the executive vice president of the Center for Employment Opportunities, a career development agency for those with criminal records.

Ralik Mitchiner, 22, who had a conviction when he was a minor, said he was not called back for several jobs he had applied for since 2021. “When they hear Raliek, they automatically assume he’s black,” he said. “Nobody knows I’m a good worker, I’m a good guy, and it sucks.”

Mr. Mitchiner began work in January as a paid intern at the Center for Employment Opportunities, and he also works the night shift as a support specialist at a mental health facility in the Bronx.

The first position was only open to him because of his previous conviction. “I had to get in trouble to work,” he said. He landed second thanks to a family member who referred him to the role.

On Thursday, 19-year-old Zsanay Anderson waited at the Department of Labor office in Downtown Brooklyn, hoping for an update on her unemployment benefit claim, which she had filed six weeks earlier.

“They didn’t help,” Mrs. Anderson said. “All they said is they are still assessing.”

Ms. Anderson lost her job in March as a case manager for a non-profit social services agency, where she helped homeless people connect with shelter and mental health services. She lives with her mother at a domestic violence shelter in Flatbush, after they fled a physically abusive relationship in North Carolina last year.

In North Carolina, Ms. Anderson worked as a restaurant manager and was preparing to attend college to complete a two-year degree. She said she planned to go to college in New York and hoped she could move from a shelter to a dormitory.

But first she wants to work. “I have a lot of experience,” she said, citing previous positions in customer service and childcare.

The job search had been going “terribly” until earlier this week, she said, when she received a call from a Brooklyn social service provider.

Her next stop was to visit the employer’s office for fingerprinting and a background check.

Wesley Parnell And Sean Piccoli reporting contributed.