Blacks hit hardest by recession in US

The job cuts in the US during the recession disproportionately hurt African-American workers and increased racial disparity in the public sector, a University of Washington study said.

The public sector has long served as an equaliser in American society as a place where minority workers could find stable employment.

"There is a double disadvantage that black public sector workers face, particularly black women," said researcher Jennifer Laird, Department of Sociology, University of Washington.

Nearly one in five black adults works for the government, in positions ranging from teaching to delivering mail, managing departments to investigating crimes.

By comparison, 14 percent of whites and 10 percent of Hispanics hold public sector jobs.

Since blacks are over-represented in government work, the public sector cuts naturally affected them more.

But Laird's research found that black civil servants, especially women, lost their jobs at rates higher than whites.

Laird analysed federal unemployment data from 2003 to 2013 by gender, racial groups and public and private sector employment.

Among various groups of workers, black men had the highest rates of unemployment - five percent in the public sector and 13 percent in the private sector - between 2003 and 2013.

"The black/white employment disparity is very hard to explain. Even after controlling for all those factors, it is really a persistent gap," Laird said.

When the number of layoff decisions increases, managers have more opportunities to discriminate.

The study was presented this week at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in Chicago.