Last Hired, First Fired? Black- White Unemployment and the Business Cycle

Kenneth A. Couch & Robert Fairlie

February 2010

“When the economy weakens, the unemployment rate of blacks-always higher than that of whites- rises by larger number of percentage points and results in a larger relative decline in employment” (Freeman 1973:77). He concluded that these estimates support the last hired pattern of black employment over the cycle.

Thus, the striking high rate of unemployment among black men is mostly due to their higher probability of losing work. Black men are also less likely to become reemployed than white men, but this contributes only slightly to the racial disparity in unemployment rates.

Blacks have a lower probability of moving from unemployment to employment, which does not appear to be related to the business cycle.

Black men are less likely to be reemployed than whites.

A larger percentage of blacks move from employment to non participation than whites.

#Loray Muhammad, author
#Black Integration a Failed Social Experiment