By Megan Sayles,
AFRO Business Writer,
msayles@afro.com
In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Black unemployment peaked at 16.8 percent in the U.S. Now, White House officials have reported that 2023 was the lowest year for Black joblessness on record. It currently sits at 5.3 percent.
Officials say the recovery was jump started by President Biden signing the American Rescue Plan into law, which provided stimulus checks to Americans, deployed capital to hard-hit small businesses, extended unemployment benefits and expanded tax credits.
“Because of the actions of this administration and the grit and determination of the American people, we’re experiencing the most equitable recovery in American history,” said U.S. Department of Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “As we’ve succeeded in driving a historical equitable economic recovery, we’ve also been increasing our long term economic activity through the president’s Investing in America agenda.”
Biden’s agenda comprises the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Each policy was created to drive public and private investment in manufacturing, repairing roads and bridges, delivering high-speed internet and creating clean transportation.
The policies also aim to generate good-paying jobs, including union jobs.
“Under President Biden, 2.6 million more Black Americans have jobs. The latest jobs report also shows the share of Black Americans in the workforce is above its pre-pandemic level and near its highest level in over a decade,” said Adeyemo. “We’ve also seen Black Americans earnings rise faster than inflation. Earnings for the typical Black full-time worker are up 7.1 percent since before the pandemic.”
Black wealth has also increased by 60 percent since 2019, the largest growth on record. However, the country’s stark racial wealth gap still persists. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, median Black wealth was $24,520 in 2021 compared to $250,400 for Whites.
“The gap between Black and White wealth in America is still too great. That’s why the president’s been focused on doing things like making sure we’re providing access to small businesses, especially underrepresented small businesses, with the tools they need to build out the economies and communities they live in,” said Adeyemo. “[This includes] $1.4 billion being provided to Black-owned and Black-operated banks in America that will not only make those banks more stable, but will allow them to be in a position where they can lend to businesses in their communities, which traditionally tend to be run by people of color.”
While in office, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to increase federal spending on contracts to small businesses. In Fiscal Year 2022, the administration hit an all-time-high by delivering $163 billion in procurement dollars to small businesses, $70 billion of which was awarded to small disadvantaged businesses.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has also eclipsed $1 billion in lending to Black, small businesses for the third year in a row.
“The president and vice president came into office on day one, committed to revitalizing our economy from the middle out and the bottom up, combating previous systems that have left communities behind by decades of failed trickle down economics,” said White House Public Engagement Director Stephen Benjamin. “The unemployment numbers we’ve seen today are truly historic, but it’s also important to note the economy is getting fundamentally stronger for African Americans because this administration is making long overdue investments in Black communities.”
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