Economics
‘Last Hired, First Fired’: Seven People Who Lost Work in the Virus Recession
The pandemic could penalize some categories of employees more heavily.
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The U.S. is in the midst of an historic crisis that’s turned back the clock on more than a decade’s worth of labor market gains for workers across several demographics. Figures due Friday are expected to show the national jobless rate surged in April to 14.7%, the highest in monthly data going back to the 1940s.
Unemployment rates for black Americans and Hispanics fell to historic lows during a record-long economic expansion that saw the overall jobless rate drop to a half-century low. Women entered the labor market at an increasingly high pace, and as of December they made up the majority of payroll employment. Also, wage growth picked up across the board.