Unemployment among Black men surged in January as the number of those looking for work increased, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor.
In January, Black workers saw their jobless rate edge higher to 6.2% from 6.1% in the month prior. This trend bucked the overall unemployment rate for the country, which ticked down to 4.0% in January from 4.1% in December. Asian Americans were the only other demographic to see a rise in jobless rates to 3.7% from 3.5%.
On the other hand, unemployment for white and Hispanic workers followed the overall trend and fell in January from the prior month. For the former, it decreased to 3.5% from 3.6%. For the latter, it fell to 4.8% from 5.1%.
But Black men experienced the biggest month-to-month spike in unemployment, with their jobless rates surging to 6.9% from 5.6%. On the other hand, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.4% for Black women.
While Hispanic men also saw their jobless rate hold steady at 4.0%, unemployment rates for their female counterparts dropped to 4.5% from 5.3%. The unemployment rate also fell for white men to 3.1% from 3.3% and marginally decreased to 3.3% from 3.4% for white women. The data breakdown by sex was not readily available for Asian Americans.
While the spike in unemployment rate for Black male workers certainly looks alarming on the surface, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics made some changes to their population controls and survey tools in January that makes it hard to compare the data to previous months, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Gould also potentially attributed the surge to standard data volatility.
“I think you would need to see a few months of that elevation, and not just a blip in the data, to think that there was something sinister going on,” she told CNBC. Still, “obviously, just the simple fact that it’s so much higher than other groups is a systemic problem in and of itself.”
Gould added that part of the rise in unemployment rate for Black men could be due to the fact that more of the cohort joined the job market in January.
Last month, the labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population that is either employed or actively seeking work — ticked higher to 62.6% from 62.5%.
Among black workers, the rate rose to 62.5% from 62.4%. The rate jumped to 69% from 68.2% for Black men, while slightly increasing to 62.5% from 62.4% for Black women.
“When the unemployment rate rises, but there’s also an increase in participation, that can often mean that people are more optimistic or coming back in the labor market looking for jobs,” Gould added.
Among white workers, the labor force participation rate rose to 62.3% from 62.2%. Within Asian workers, the participation increased to 64.7% from 64.3%, and slipped among Hispanic workers to 66.8% from 67.5%.
– CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.
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