The U.S. unemployment rate saw a mixed shift in February, with Black men experiencing improvement while other groups, including Hispanic and white women, faced an uptick in joblessness.
The overall unemployment rate went up slightly to 4.1 percent in February from 4 percent in January, pointing to a moderate rise in unemployment across the country, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on March 7. However, the job growth, which came in under expectations, indicated potential challenges ahead for the labor market, CNBC reported.
One bright spot in the report was the significant decline in unemployment among Black men. The jobless rate for Black men aged 20 and older dropped to 5.5 percent in February, a decrease from the 6.9 percent rate in January. This marks a return to levels seen in December, when the unemployment rate for Black men was at 5.6 percent.
This improvement contrasts with the rise in unemployment rates for several other demographic groups. The rate for Hispanic women increased to 5.1 percent from 4.5 percent the previous month. Hispanic men also saw an increase in unemployment, rising from 4.0 percent to 4.6 percent. For white women, the rate went up from 3.3 percent to 3.4 percent, while white men’s rate climbed to 3.5 percent from 3.1 percent. White workers, in general, saw their jobless rate rise to 3.8 percent from 3.5 percent in January.
Despite these increases, the overall unemployment rate for Black workers decreased slightly to 6 percent from 6.2 percent in January, marking an encouraging sign for the Black workforce. Black women saw their unemployment rate remain at 5.4 percent, following a spike to 5.9 percent in November of last year.
Economists noted that the February data came during a period of uncertainty, with government efforts to reduce federal staffing and unpredictable factors such as weather-related job displacement and rising labor strikes potentially skewing the numbers, PBS reported.
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, highlighted that the lack of significant layoffs in the data thus far may be a temporary calm before potential stormy economic conditions take full effect.
“It’s the calm before the storm,” she told CNBC. “We’re not seeing the layoffs in the data yet, for the most part.”
