Race, Risk, and Workforce Equity in the Coronavirus Economy

Over a span of less than three months, the COVID-19 pandemic has radically upended the lives and livelihoods of millions of workers and their families. More than 42 million workers have filed for unemployment insurance, and economists have estimated that 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed. But while the pain has been widespread, it has not been equally shared: workers of color and immigrant workers, especially women, are being hardest hit by the loss of jobs and income and are disproportionately employed in the lowest-wage, essential jobs that place them at risk of contracting the virus. While national data has shown that people of color are concentrated in essential jobs and that Black and Latinx workers have higher unemployment rates, thus far we have lacked detailed data describing who are the most impacted workers in this crisis — crucial facts needed to inform relief and recovery strategies at the local, state, and national levels. This analysis aims to fill that gap.Based on data on changes in job openings between March 2 and April 13 from Burning Glass Technologies layered with data on worker demographics and wages from the Census, this report offers the most comprehensive analysis of the economic impacts of the crisis on workers by race, gender, nativity, and occupation to date for the United States as a whole and 10 metropolitan regions: Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco, and Seattle. We examine the labor market impacts for three broad and mutually exclusive occupational groups: health-care jobs; frontline non-healthcare jobs deemed “essential” in the midst of the pandemic; and “non-essential” jobs most likely to be subject to the economic shutdowns that followed declarations of emergency at the federal, state, or local level. Our seven key findings: 1) In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, job openings have fallen sharply across the economy, and most deeply among the lowest-paid non-essential jobs.2) People of color are overrepresented in the non-essential jobs hit first and hardest by the economic downturn.3) The jobs with higher risk of exposure to coronavirus will likely be among the last to come back, putting Black, Latinx, and Native American workers at heightened risk of long-term unemployment.4) Essential jobs have been less impacted by slowing growth, but Native Americans and immigrants are more concentrated than other workers in essential jobs where opportunities are declining.5) Jobs with growing demand in the midst of the downturn could provide lifeboats, and a pathway to economic security, for the unemployed.6) Healthcare jobs have seen the least overall decline in job postings, but racial and gender wage gaps are more pronounced in health care than in other occupational groups. Black and Latinx women are especially concentrated in lower wage health care occupations.7) Metros with greater economic diversity and stronger growth prior to the crisis, such as San Francisco and Seattle, have experienced less extreme job-market impacts. Regional economies that rely heavily on tourism, such as Miami or Nashville, have been hit particularly hard by the downturn.To address the inequities highlighted in this analysis and lay the foundation for an equitable recovery, policymakers must protect workers by ensuring safe conditions and adequate protections and improving the pay and quality of low-wage jobs; supporting dislocated workers through direct supports and targeted job training and placement programs; and plan for a changed economic landscape in the wake of the pandemic downturn.

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