Black Americans Are Reentering The Work Force Faster Than Whites

Zero Hedge
October 7, 2018


While a strong economy isn't a cure for racism, it sure is doing a lot to help smooth out inequality in the labor market. As economists have taken a closer look at Friday's monthly labor-market update from the BLS, an interesting pattern has emerged that would seem to cut against the idea that only white Americans are benefiting from President Trump's policies.

To wit, Axios pointed out that the employment-to-population ratio for blacks is rising much more quickly than that of whites. Presently, roughly 59% of black Americans are employed, compared with more than 60% for whites.
According to Axios, the rise in black relative employment can be attributed to black Americans being more willing to take relatively lower-paying jobs, while white Americans are typically more inclined to wait for a higher salary. And if unemployed whites truly are holding out for higher-paying jobs, they're in for a wait, because as Deutsche Bank's Torsten Slok pointed out back in August,high-paying jobs have actually been declining throughout 2018 as employers have shifted their hiring to low-wage occupations.