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White Unemployment Rates Rise in October

As per the information presented by the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate of the White ethnic group increased to 3.8 percent in October from 3.6 percent in September. This increase is in variance with the national unemployment figures, which in the same period remained unchanged at 4.1 percent.  

Data shows that employment-situation indicators for Black and Hispanic workers have remained unchanged at 5.7 and 5.1 percent respectively. Importantly, the unemployment rate of the Asian American population dropped from 4.1 percent in September to 3.9 percent in October. 

Additional data shows that unemployment rates for both White males and females are higher. White males recorded an increase in the unemployment rate to 3.5 percent which was higher than the 3.4 percent reported in the preceding period. On the other hand, the unemployment rate for White women reported an increase from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent. Looking at Hispanic workers, women’s unemployment rose from 4.8 percent to 5.2 percent, while the rate for employment of men in this ethnic group declined marginally from 4.1 percent to 4.0 percent. For African American workers, whereas the unemployment rate for women dropped from 5.3 percent to 4.9 percent, that of their male counterparts rose by 0.6 percent, from 5.1 percent to 5.7 percent. 

In her professional role as the director of the Economic Policy Institute, Heidi Shierholz commented on these latest occurrences and noted how much employment figures increase and decrease every month. Shierholz explained that perhaps the increase in unemployment of young Black men can be explained by the fact that the rate of vacancies has increased from previous lower estimates. This statistic, which stood at 5.9% of the labor force in August, tumbled in October to stand at 5.1%. However, Shierholz cautioned that there should not be an application of trends over patterns too broadly, more so in this specific month which had abnormal occurrences like hurricanes and labor conflicts that could distort the data. 

Moreover, the share of legally adult age population above the employment which is the labor force participation levels that include also the seeking of jobs keen dropped from 62.7% to 62.6 % in respect to October. This reduction was equally experienced among White laborers who posted a decline in participation rate from 62.4% to 62.2%. The same phenomenon was experienced by Hispanic workers who recorded a fall from a participation level of 67.4% to 66.9%. On the contrary, the same growth rate in the participation level was recorded by Asian workers who rose to 65.5% but the level of participation of Black Americans was unchanged at 62.9%.