Women of color are more likely to be employed in customer-facing jobs, which have been hit hardest by the pandemic—and as a result, they’re also less likely to be able to work from home, adding to the childcare puzzle, according to Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at S&P Global Ratings.
Employment among women should begin rebounding faster starting in September as schools reopen, Bovino said.
Wage Growth
So far, wage growth has been holding up well relative to past downturns, especially for Americans in the bottom 25% of the earnings distribution. Wage growth for that group was 4.2% in the 12 months through May, versus 3.4% for the entire workforce, according to a measure compiled by the Atlanta Fed.
Wage growth for low-paid Americans is holding up well
Many employers in low-paying industries have been reporting trouble finding workers as the economy reopens, which has fueled an intense political debate over the extent to which expanded unemployment insurance benefits have contributed to the shortage of labor.
But states across the country controlled by Republican governors are moving to discontinue the expanded benefits this month, while in the rest of the country, the expansion will expire in September.
Education Gap
The recovery in labor-force participation has also been stratified by education levels, and gaps there have widened in recent months.
For those without high-school diplomas, participation in May was 4.9 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels, whereas for those with bachelor’s degrees or higher levels of college education, the participation shortfall was less than one percentage point.
“While the employment gains are solid, we have not seen the ‘string of strong jobs reports’ of more than 1 million job gains that Chair Powell was hoping for and they are not fully inclusive,” Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist at Oxford Economics, wrote Friday in a note.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.