In May, the unemployment rate in the United States slightly increased, but saw a decline among Hispanic workers, according to the most recent nonfarm payroll report. The unemployment rate for the previous month was 3.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from the prior month. However, Hispanic or Latina women saw their unemployment rate decrease to 3.4% last month from 4.1% in April, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday. The unemployment rate also declined for Hispanic men from 4.1% to 4%. Overall, the unemployment rate among Latinos decreased to 4% in May from 4.4% from the prior month.
Carmen Sanchez Cumming, a research associate at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, states that “this is a historic low” in the decline of the Hispanic unemployment rate. Moreover, she added that “For both Hispanic workers and for Black workers, at least in the first half of 2023, this recovery has been especially strong.”
However, unemployment for black workers increased overall, rising 0.9 percentage points to 5.6% in May from 4.7% in April. The rate for Black men was 5.6% in May, compared to 4.5% in April. The unemployment rate also increased for Black women, rising to 5.3% in May from 4.4% in April.
Cumming explained that “economic research and empirical data shows that for Hispanic workers and for Black workers, their outcomes are much more sensitive to fluctuations in the business cycle. When the labor market is really strong, Latino workers and Black workers benefit disproportionately, but when the labor market is weak, Black and Latino workers [are] hurt disproportionately, too.”
Economic analysts like Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, caution that while the monthly jobs report provides data on a monthly basis, there is a lot of volatility, especially when looking at smaller demographic groups in the household survey. Gould suggests that it is essential to look at longer-term trends.
The labor force participation rate for the overall population held steady at 62.6% in May. For Black men, the labor force participation rate increased to 68.2% from 67.8% in April, while the rate for Black women remained steady at 63.9%. As for Hispanic men, the labor force participation rate was 79.5% in May, up from 78.9% in April, but remained the same for Hispanic women at 61.2%.
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