The Illinois Policy Institute’s chief economist, Dr. Orphe Divounguy, appeared on WGN TV to discuss his recent research concerning Illinois’ troubling unemployment data.
Over 406,700 workers are still missing from Illinois’ COVID-19 economic recovery, but the impacts are worse for Black Illinoisans.
More than 300,000 prime working-age Illinoisans are estimated to still be out of work because of COVID-19. Employment of white, prime working-age Illinoisans is 7.4% lower because of the effects of COVID-19 on the state’s economy.
For Black Illinoisans of prime working age, the negative impact on employment has been far greater. Of these workers, 11.3% are not working thanks to COVID-19.
Not only have Black Illinoisans been the most hurt by the economic downturn, they have been wholly left out of the recovery. While almost every group saw a year-over-year increase in employment, the employment rate of Black, non-Hispanic Illinoisans fell by 5.4 percentage points according to data from the monthly Current Population Survey.
Further reading: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/black-workers-suffer-most-from-illinois-slow-recovery-from-covid-19/
Airdate: July 23, 2021
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