The gap between the Black and White unemployment rate — a closely watched benchmark of inequality in the labor market — shrank to its narrowest level on record in March as African Americans saw outsize gains in employment.
The Black unemployment rate plunged to 5% last month, the lowest level in data going back to the early 1970s. It’s still 1.8 percentage points above the rate for White Americans — which was unchanged at 3.2% in March — but that gap is the smallest ever.
While data for individual race groups can vary from month to month, the number of Black Americans becoming employed has been rising sharply for five straight months as minority workers, often the most sidelined, experience the benefits of a tight job market.
