The official unemployment rate in the United States for African-American workers, under the Republican Party-controlled White House and U.S. Senate and the Democratic Party-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, continued to exceed 16 percent in May 2020. According to the the June 5, 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release:
"...The jobless rates for teenagers (29.9 percent), Blacks (16.8 percent), and Asians (15.0 percent) showed little change over the month....Among those not on temporary layoff, the number of permanent job losers continued to rise, increasing by 295,000 in May to 2.3 million...The number of unemployed persons who were jobless 5 to 14 weeks rose by 7.8 million to 14.8 million, accounting for about 70.8 percent of the unemployed. The
number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.2 million, increased by 225,000 over the month and represented 5.6 percent of the unemployed...
"The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 10.6 million, changed little in May, but is up by 6.3 million since February. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs...
"The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job, at 9.0 million...These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the last 4 weeks...Persons marginally attached to the labor force--a subset of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job--numbered 2.4 million in May, little different from the prior month. These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, numbered 662,000 in May, also little changed from the previous month....
"...Government employment continued to decline sharply...Employment in the accommodation industry fell in May (-148,000) and has declined by 1.1 million since February...Job losses continued in nursing and residential care facilities (-37,000) and hospitals (-27,000)...Job losses continued in electronics and appliance stores (-95,000) and in auto parts, accessories, and tire stores (-36,000)...
"In May, employment continued to decline in government (-585,000), following a drop of 963,000 in April. Employment in local government was down by 487,000 in May. Local
government education accounted for almost two-thirds of the decrease (-310,000), reflecting school closures. Employment also continued to decline in state government (-84,000), particularly in state education (-63,000).
"Employment in information fell by 38,000 in May, following a decline of 272,000 in April.
"Mining continued to lose jobs in May (-20,000), with most of the decline occurring in support activities for mining (-16,000). Mining employment has declined by 77,000 over the past 3 months.
"Employment in transportation and warehousing decreased in May (-19,000), after an April decline of 553,000. Air transportation lost 50,000 jobs over the month, following a loss of 79,000 jobs in April...
"The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down by 492,000, from -881,000 to -1.4 million, and the change for April was revised down by 150,000, from -20.5 million to -20.7 million. With these revisions, employment in March and
April combined was 642,000 lower than previously reported... After revisions, job losses have averaged 6.5 million per month over the past 3 months...."
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