September’s weak jobs report shows widening strain on Black workers - New York Amsterdam News

Black workers were hurt the most by the weak September job market : The Black unemployment rate jumped from 6% to 7%, the highest among the major racial groups tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. added only 29,000 jobs last month — a major number below the 84,000 economists had expected — and the overall unemployment rate edged up to 4.2%. In September, white unemployment slipped to 3.6%, Asian unemployment fell to 2.9%, and Latino unemployment eased to 4.7%. “The September jobs data highlights the economic vulnerability and insecurity facing Black workers,” Dr. Gabrielle Smith Finnie, senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, told the Amsterdam News .