The unemployed Americans has swelled from 6.2 million in February 2020 to 14 million in May 2020, which has resulted in a jump of unemployment rate of 10.13 per cent in May.
The rise in unemployed people at the time of Coronavirus is greater than the increase due to the Great Recession, when the unemployed numbers increased by 8.8 million from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2010. The unemployment rate peaked at 10.6 percent in January 2010 during teh time of recession. This is far less than the present rate of unemployment, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.
In the new analysis, the Pew Research Centre said that unemployment rate in May, 2020 might be high as 16 per cent by the US government’s estimate. However, it was not recorded due to meet the challenges arisen amid coronavirus outbreak. Another thing pointed out is the sharp decline labour force participation among the workers
The analysis pointed out that the recession of coronavirus was comparable more to the Great depression of 1930s when unemployment rate had almost reached 25 per cent. They said that unemployment rate for women in May stood at 14.3 per cent, which was higher than the unemployment rate for men that was 11.9 per cent. One of the reasons for the increased unemployment in women is that they formed the majority of workers on payrolls of businesses in the hospitality and leisure sector educational service. The rates fell by 39 per cent and 15 per cent from February to May, respectively, the Pew Research Centre said.
However, the analysis said that unemployment rate for black men in May (15.8 per cent) was substantially less than the peak rate they faced in the Great Recession (21.2 per cent). The Pew Research Centre said that the reason for this less rate was not clear. However, they said occupation and industry distribution of black men might have lessened the rates.
The analysis also pointed out that Hispanic workers faced an unemployment rate of 15.5 per cent in May, Asian 13.3 per cent and white unemployment rate of 9.7 per cent. Despite unemployment rates increased for Asian and white men during coronavirus time, they remained below the rates for black and Hispanic men. It also said that Hispanic women had a high rate of unemployment in May (19.5 per cent) when compared to other women or men among the major racial and ethnic groups in the US. The unemployment rate among white women jumped nearly fivefold, climbing from 2.5 per cent in February to 11.9 per cent in May. A Steep increase in the unemployment rate among Asian women also pushed their unemployment rate in May (16,7 per cent) to near parity with the unemployment rate among black women (17.2 per cent), the Pew analysis said.
Another finding is that immigrants saw their unemployment rate jump higher than the rate for US born workers during the pandemic. The unemployment rate for immigrants had risen to 15.7 per cent when compared with 12.4 per cent for US born workers. The steeper increase in the unemployment rate for immigrants is driven by the experience of Hispanic workers who comprised 47 per cent of the immigrant workforce in February, compared with 12 per cent of the US born workforce
They also said that unemployment rate among young adults (16 to 24) stood at 25.3 per cent and it exceeded the rate among other workers by a substantial margin in May. One of te main reasons is that young adults concentrated mainly in high risk sectors such as such as food services and drink places. Social distancing and shutdowns had severely affected these sectors.
The unemployment rate in May was lowest among workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher education (17.2 per cent).
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