Asian-American unemployment spikes as group is disproportionately hit by US job losses
- ‘They’re in the wrong occupations and wrong industries, which before Covid-19 were doing fine but now have really suffered,’ a labour economist says
- Among the sectors where Asian-Americans tend to be heavily represented are restaurants, personal services such as nail salons, and retail
September unemployment figures to be released on Friday are expected to show more bad news for Asian-Americans, who have lost jobs in disproportionate numbers since the coronavirus pandemic upended the US economy.
A US minority that has typically had some of the lowest unemployment rates of any ethnic group, including white people, Asian-Americans have been hit hard since February, particularly those aged 16 to 24. That group, which has seen a 300 per cent rise in joblessness since the pandemic hit, is worse off than young white and Hispanic people, although it is still better off than African-Americans, according to USAFacts and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It’s a perfect storm, or a bad perfect storm or a perfect bad storm,” said Marlene Kim, a labour economist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. “They’re in the wrong occupations and wrong industries, which before Covid-19 were doing fine but now have really suffered.”
Among those hard-hit parts of the economy where Asian-Americans tend to be heavily represented are restaurants, personal services such as nail salons, and retail.
Even when they’re in an industry that has managed to survive and even thrive, Asian-Americans often find themselves in the wrong aisle. Thus while parts of the food and beverage sector such as grocery and liquor stores have done well, Asian-Americans tend to be the cooks, waiters and delivery people in the hard-hit restaurant sector.