Racial and ethnic inequality strike back as Latinos and Blacks can’t say “we are working from home too,” a study shows.
In spite of the sudden demand for the use of the acronym WFH (Working From Home), according to the Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor in 2018, less than 30 percent of the entire workforce can actually telework. And only 16 percent of Hispanic workers have jobs that allow that kind of flexibility.
African Americans follow closely, with a 20 percent margin.
When compared to White, Asian, Non-Hispanic or Latino the race and ethnicity gap widens, Asians being capable of working from home the most by almost 40 percent.
This is in part due to the line of work typically chosen by Latinos versus Asians, for instance. During this pandemic, people who work in health care, education, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing industries face uncertainty because working from home is often not an option.
Meanwhile, hospitality and retail workers are the most at risk, with less than 8 percent likely to telework.
When compared by salary, it is no surprise that lower-wage workers have fewer chances to be able to adapt to this coronavirus quarantine demands and still make a living.
As the Economic Policy Institute reports, higher-wage employees are six times more likely to telework than lower-wage workers.
Latinos Unemployment Rates Are Higher Than the Rest of the Population
As of 2018, the unemployment rate for Latinos was at 4.7 percent, which is considerably higher than the rate of 3.7 percent for non-Hispanics, according to the U.S.B.L.
Factors like geography, level of education—and even the weather at a certain location—can determine the amount of discrimination a person of color may face when looking for a job, the study says.
Among the entire Latino employment-population, 63 percent had a job.
But when it comes to labor force participation, adult Hispanic men (20+ years old) take the lead as the largest race and ethnicity, with an 80 percent margin. Asian and White males followed closely with 75 and 72 percent, respectively. While blacks were the least likely with 68 percent.
As for Latinas, 57 percent were employed in 2018 and proved to have attained higher education than their male counterpart.
Overall, Latinos account for 17 percent of the entire workforce of the country and African Americans, for 12 percent.
With the novel coronavirus spreading rapidly, the need to continue to make a living regardless of your location increases as well.
And being counted correctly on the Census 2020 matters more than ever. “All our services –from lunches for senior citizens to educational opportunities and healthcare– are based on the census,” says Heriberto Sosa, Director of Unity Coalition/Coalición Unida, an organization founded in 2002 to advance equality and fairness through education, leadership, and awareness. “So if we are not counted, we are taking away from our communities.”
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