Asian American and Black workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic are slower than Whites and Hispanics to get reemployed.
That’s the analysis of Jason Furman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Wilson Powell of the Harvard Kennedy School.
The researchers say 18% of Black and 20% of Asian American unemployed workers found new jobs in the first six months of this year, reports the Eurasia Review.
That’s about 5% lower than the reemployment of White and Hispanic unemployed workers.
The analysis does not explore reasons for this difference.
However, a separate study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in January found almost half of unemployed Asian Americans had been out of work at least 27 weeks. That’s a bigger share than White, Hispanic and Black workers, reported Bloomberg.
In April, Bloomberg Law reported that bias linked to the pandemic would ripple through the workplace.
An anonymous Asian American worker told the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council about being accused by a coworker of “eating a bat”. Others said they were bullied or isolated at work while another was asked to stay away from a yoga studio as a precaution.
Former President Trump’s frequent use of the term “the Chinese virus” or the “kung flu” has been connected to some of this blowback.
Employers need to protect workers from harassment,” said Amy Bess, shareholder and labor and employment chair at Vedder Price in Washington. “You are seeing anecdotally, people spitting at Asian people on the streets and yelling obscenities, that could translate to the workplace. Bottom line to me: education and information is so critical. Discrimination claims come from a level of ignorance.”
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