Every month, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases a jobs report that details the change in employment figures from the previous month. The jobs report rarely generates headlines outside of the business world and typically focuses on two numbers: the change in “total nonfarm payroll employment,” which is typically reported as the number of jobs lost or gained that month, and the change in the unemployment rate.
The January jobs report made headlines when it reported that women accounted for all of the jobs lost in December, but left out one crucial fact: women of color accounted for all the losses.
The most recent jobs report was published on the morning of January 8th. By noon, Business Insider had published an article pointing out that, of the 140,000 jobs lost in December, all of them were held by women. CNN’s headline echoed Business Insider’s. Meanwhile, Fortune reported that “Women accounted for 100% of the 140,000 jobs shed by the U.S. economy in December.”.
Beyond the headlines, all of these articles acknowledged that the losses most strongly affected women of color. The CNN article noted in a later paragraph that “a separate survey of households” made clear that “among women, Blacks and Latinas lost jobs in December, while White women made significant gains.” This key fact was omitted in the headline, leading many, such as California Representative Katie Porter, to retweet the misleading headline.
Folks are reacting while overlooking a pretty significant line in this piece:
“Among women, Blacks and Latinas lost jobs in December, while White women made significant gains.” https://t.co/b3x9FeJIL2
— ERRCUH (@egemini618) January 9, 2021
They updated the story since first publishing it. Here’s a screenshot I took earlier in the evening that didn’t have this very *very* important piece of info! Thanks for flagging we need to go back to it! pic.twitter.com/j7zCv399hK
— Jessica Womack (@jesswhoa16) January 9, 2021
The survey referenced by CNN showed that, in December, White women over 20 gained 106,000 jobs, while Black women lost 82,000 jobs and Latinas lost 31,000. This reflects the ongoing racial disparities which have characterized job loss throughout the pandemic. Not only is the unemployment rate for Black women (8.4 percent) and Latinas (9.1 percent) significantly higher than the unemployment rate for White women (5.7 percent), but of the nearly 2.1 million women who left the labor force in 2020, over a quarter were Black women, as reported by the National Women’s Law Center.
This distinction is important. Saying that women accounted for 100 percent of the jobs lost in December, although factually true, fails to identify the root of the problem—economic systems which have disproportionately forced women of color into low-paying service and sales jobs, jobs which have been hardest hit by the pandemic, often have limited sick leave, and cannot be done remotely. This is what the latest jobs numbers most reflect—leaving that detail out of the headlines paints an incomplete picture.