#Afterthought: Adia Wingfield on Race & Pandemic Unemployment
a sociologist and labor expert delves into the uniquely harmful effects of pandemic-fueled joblessness on Black workers
a CSG East feature
B|E Note Publisher & WURD Reality Check Host/Executive Producer Charles Ellison has another #AfterThought conversation with Adia Wingfield, author of Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy and Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. This conversation is powered by the Council of State Governments, Eastern Regional Conference, Council on Communities of Color as part of its #CSGCOVID19 micro-summit series.
“Well, these numbers are pretty horrific,” says Wingfield, describing recent federal government jobs reports. “They're frightening and they don't portend a quick or easy recovery from what I can tell. They are particularly staggering for the implications that they have for communities of color, as they show very high rates of unemployment for Black and Latino workers. We know as researchers these are the groups who are most likely to be hard hit by economic downturns, and also the groups who are likely to be the slowest to recover from economic downturns. So it's very concerning that these jobless numbers exist in the scope that they do.
“Many times Black workers are employed in service industry jobs, particularly in lower wage sectors of the service industry. And as we know, those slower wage service industry jobs have been especially hard hit. I'm thinking of hospitality, food service and beverage restaurant industries. So given where Black workers and workers of color tend to be over represented, to some degree it’s not such a surprise that they would be likely to be harder hit.”
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