Unemployment gap between black and white Americans widest in 5 years

The gap between the US unemployment rates for Blacks and whites widened further in June, to its largest in five years, underscoring the uneven nature of the nascent recovery from historic job losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Jobless rates for both groups fell in June, but the rate for whites came down at a much faster rate. The white unemployment rate fell 2.3 percentage points to 10.1 per cent from 12.4 per cent, while the rate for Blacks dropped 1.4 points to 15.4 per cent from 16.8 per cent.

At 5.3 percentage points, the gap is now the widest since May