“Institutional racism and historical discrimination have meant that Black workers have fared worse in the labor market, even in good times,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute who co-authored a report this week looking at the devastating toll COVID-19 has taken on Black workers.

People Who Still Have Jobs Are Also Struggling

Meanwhile, Black Americans who are still employed are more likely to be in front-line jobs at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus, the EPI report notes.

Black workers are 60% less likely to have health insurance, EPI’s report notes.

They’re more likely than white women to be the sole breadwinner at home with young children ― 14.4% of Black women are in that situation, compared with 4% of white women, EPI points out.

According to the report, 43% of white workers are in the kind of higher-risk, nonessential jobs that will be slower to come back, compared with 52% of Black workers and 57% of Latinx workers.