Nationwide—In April, 7.2 million workers were unemployed and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for Black workers was 6.3% and the unemployment rate for Latinx workers was 5.2%, compared to a rate of just 3.8% for white workers. Unemployment among Asian workers was 3.0%. Continuing disparities in unemployment rates are a result of structural racism in the U.S. labor market.
“Despite the Trump administration’s ever-shifting trade policies and barrage of anti-worker initiatives, unemployment rates have remained steady so far,” said Rebecca Dixon, president and CEO of the National Employment Law Project (NELP). “But analysts warn that an economic downturn is likely in the coming months. Now is the time for policymakers to strengthen the unemployment insurance system that millions of workers will rely on if they lose their jobs.”
At a recent event considering the first 100 days of the Trump administration, Dixon pointed out that the unemployment insurance system is still largely structured as it was in the 1930s, when it was constructed to serve white men who had lost their full-time jobs.
New research from NELP Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst Amy Traub and researchers Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Sanjay Pinto reveals that the nation’s unemployment insurance (UI) system is not ready for an economic downturn. The Unemployed Worker Study analyzes a survey of nearly 1,500 workers who experienced unemployment between 2019 and 2024, exposing numerous weak points in the system, including inadequate unemployment benefit amounts, continued barriers to accessing benefits, and dramatic variation between states.
The industries that added the most jobs in April included health care and transportation and warehousing. Future job growth in health care could be threatened if Congress cuts Medicaid and other health funding, while transportation jobs, particularly in the trucking industry, are endangered by the administration’s steep tariffs. Federal government employment experienced the greatest job losses in April. The decline in federal government employment is a direct result of the Trump administration’s firing of public servants who worked to advance the public interest by ensuring food safety, keeping Social Security running, warning communities about dangerous storm systems, assisting with recovery from natural disasters, and preventing plane crashes, among other critical functions.
To protect workers from the impact of an economic downturn, Congress must pass The Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Recession Readiness Act, introduced in the previous congress by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Representative Don Beyer (D-VA). The bill sets nationwide standards for UI, mandating that states offer at least 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, raising benefit amounts to replace a greater share of workers’ prior earnings, and increasing coverage for part-time workers, temp workers, and workers whose earnings fluctuate over time. The bill also establishes a new, federally funded Jobseekers Allowance to support jobless workers who would not otherwise be covered by unemployment insurance and modernizes the Extended Benefits program that makes additional weeks of unemployment benefits available in times of high unemployment. State policymakers across the country should also act to improve their state unemployment insurance systems to better support workers and the economy.
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