African America’s May 2023 Jobs Report – 5.6%

OVERALL UNEMPLOYMENT: 3.7%

AFRICAN AMERICAN: 5.6%

LATINO AMERICAN: 4.0%

EUROPEAN AMERICAN: 3.3%

ASIAN AMERICAN: 2.9%

Analysis: Latino Americans were the only group to see a decrease in their unemployment rate from April with a 40 basis point drop. African American led all others with the largest increase in unemployment rate with a 90 basis point increase from April.

AFRICAN AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GENDER & AGE

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 5.6%

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 5.3% 

AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 11.7%

AFRICAN AMERICAN PARTICIPATION BY GENDER & AGE

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN: 68.2%

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: 63.6%

AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE: 29.2%

Analysis: African American Men and Women both saw upticks in their unemployment rates by 110 and 90 basis points, respectively. African American Men saw a 40 basis point uptick in their participation rate from April while African American Women remained unchanged from April. Over the past 5 months African American Women’s participation rate is trending upward with African American Men’s participation rate trending downward. African American Teenagers remain an extremely volatile group with their participation rate having been virtually unchanged since our last report in November 2020. The good news for the African American Teenage group is their unemployment rate is at a 5 month low although the volatility remains questionable if it will remain.

African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 950,000 more jobs than African American Men in May. This is a decrease from 1,017,000 in April.

CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 339,000 million jobs in May. African America saw a loss of 125,000 jobs in May. From Yahoo Finance, “Following this report, many Wall Street economists suggested the uptick in the unemployment rate to 3.7% and the deceleration in hourly wages — which rose 4.3% over last year compared to 4.4% in April — as signs the Federal Reserve is beginning to see the “better balance,” Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has frequently referenced. Others, however, were shocked by the jobs numbers.”