Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has not reached all Georgians equally, and unemployment figures do not tell the full story. Black Georgians are finding their way back to the work place more slowly than their white counterparts.
“The share of black Georgians who are unemployed and enrolled in unemployment insurance is higher than it’s been in this entire pandemic, and higher than it was even in the Great Recession,” said GBPI Worker Justice and Criminal Legal Systems Ray Khalfani. “Sixty-four percent of the share of all Georgians receiving unemployment insurance are African American. So while we may have some pandemic lows when it comes to the unemployment rate, we’re at a pandemic high as far as the share of those black people who are receiving jobless payments.”
