(CNN) — The US unemployment rate returned to a historic low of 3.5% in December. Not everyone is celebrating, however: Jobless rates for Black women and Latino men still haven’t recovered fully from the pandemic.
The unemployment rate for Black women aged 20 years and older rose to 5.5% in December, from 5.2% in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was 4.8% in February 2020, the month before Covid lockdowns rocked the US economy.
For Latino men, unemployment rose 0.4 percentage points to 4% last month, higher than the 3.1% unemployment rate in February 2020.
But for many other demographics, unemployment is lower or the same now as it was before the pandemic. For White women 20 years and older, the rate was 2.8% in December. The jobless rate was around 2.5% for Asians, 3% for Whites, and 4% for Latinos, according to the BLS.
There are several reasons for the rise in unemployment for Black women and Latinos,…
