McKinsey&Company
Opportunity and bias in the land of the free
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Black jobless rate ticks up. The US unemployment rate dipped to 3.9% in December 2021, the lowest it’s been since February 2020, according to federal data. But even as unemployment fell for every other demographic group, the share of out-of-work Black Americans increased to 7.1%—more than double the 3.2% unemployment rate among White workers. The share of jobless Black US workers has consistently been higher than that of White US workers, but the gap has widened in the past two years. [Quartz] |
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Sustaining Black entrepreneurship. In 2021, businesses owned by Black people made up more than $2 billion of the global hair care market—a substantial gain in an industry that historically hasn’t had many products geared toward Black consumers. While gaining traction has proven difficult for many Black entrepreneurs, the passing of the 2019 CROWN Act by several US states has given Black professionals more freedom and flexibility to wear their natural hairstyles in the workplace. [NYT] |
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Billions on the table. In the US, Black workers are more likely to be employed in lower-paying roles in healthcare, retail, and food services—working as home health aides, security guards, and cashiers. However, they are underrepresented among lawyers, doctors, and other better-paid professionals. Black American workers could earn an additional $220 billion each year if these racial gaps in representation, participation, and pay were eliminated, McKinsey research reveals. |
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More than numbers. If the Black share of business ownership matched the Black share of the population, more than 600,000 new Black-led businesses would exist. That could ease the load of Black workers, who struggle with a persistent wage gap: the median wage for all US workers is $42,000 per year, but almost half of Black US workers earn less than $30,000 a year. Read McKinsey’s report for a vision of what stands to be gained by closing the racial gaps in the US economy, along with a set of actions that leaders in academia, business, and government can take.
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| — Edited by Emily Adeyanju |
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