According to a recent report by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall rate dropped to 13.3 % but the unemployment rate for African-Americans have risen to 16.8 %.
This means that there are now 87,000 more black workers who are unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic.This is the highest the black unemployment rate has been since 2011.
In May of 2019, the black unemployment rate was only 6.2 %.
The unemployment rate among whites is at 12.4 %, a drop from the 14.2 % rate in April, according to the data.
Bill Spriggs, chief economist at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, told CBS that these rates confirm that blacks were the first to get fired from their jobs and have not been called back to work even though jobs are reopening.
