This article originally appeared on Stateline.
Black workers with bachelor’s degrees continued to lose jobs in May, even as the relaxing of coronavirus restrictions led to job gains for white professionals.
White college graduates gained almost 900,000 jobs in the first sign of an economic recovery between April and May, while their black counterparts lost 200,000 jobs, according to a Stateline analysis of federal employment data.
There could be worse to come as government jobs, a source of middle-class pay for many black professionals, start to erode as cities and states respond to evaporating tax revenue.
May’s jobs report was widely seen as a success for efforts to loosen coronavirus-related restrictions, with 4 million jobs added overall and the unemployment rate ticking down between April and May. But the racial disparity was stark.
Black workers with less education gained jobs as restaurants and stores started to reopen, and there continued to be high demand for registered nurses — a job that requires an associate degree.
But overall, there was no improvement in the black unemployment rate, which rose from 16.7% to 16.8%, even as the rates for other groups improved.
Many of the lost jobs for educated black workers were in tech fields. Black professionals also lost jobs in health care, as many people postponed doctor’s visits and medical procedures to avoid exposure to the coronavirus and to keep hospitals clear for COVID-19 patients.
“Those job categories have become entry-level white-collar jobs, thus having a larger percentage of minorities,” said Mark Dean, an African American pioneer in personal computers and a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Engineering. Some of the biggest dr ..
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