Black Americans led the pack in labor force participation in May, but still face the highest rates of unemployment, Bloomberg reports.
Black people made up 63 percent of the total number of Americans who were either looking for a job or employed during the month of May. The number of prime-age Black workers, which includes ages 25 to 54, participating in the labor force reached its highest level since 2005 at 81.2 percent.
Experts say that the increase in Black labor force participation is an encouraging sign that the economy is recovering from the pandemic as more people are entering back into the job market.
However, the gains in labor force participation caused an unemployment jump for Black Americans, which was the only racial group to see an increase in joblessness aside from Hispanic Americans. As more people came back to the job market, not all were successful in finding employment.
According to Bloomberg, the Black unemployment rate increased to 6.2 percent in May, which is still almost double that of White Americans at 3.2 percent. It also remains disproportionately higher than the national rate of 3.6 percent.
Last month, the female labor force also led to higher participation overall. The number of working women ages 25 to 54 grew to 49 million, which almost sits at the level of the group’s labor participation pre-pandemic.
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