Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Two steps back: COVID-19 derails labor-force progress by Black Americans
COVID-19 | Diversity & Inclusion | North America
February 17, 2021 – After a decade-long economic expansion, Black Americans had nearly closed the gap on white Americans in labor-force participation. The pandemic undid all that progress. Flip through the interactive to further examine Black workers’ underrepresentation and pay gaps in 20 large occupations.
Interactive
To read the article, see “America 2021: The opportunity to advance racial equity,” February 17, 2021.
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Visual form
Two-panel time-series sequence.
Layout / body structure
The embedded view shows two stacked line charts, one for labor-force participation at the top and one for unemployment at the bottom, with Prev and Next controls above the charts. Reader follows both series from 2011 through the COVID-19 shock in 2020 and can then step through additional views using the navigation controls.
What is being compared
It compares Black Americans with the overall average on two labor-market measures: labor-force participation and unemployment. The comparison runs through the recovery years before the pandemic and then into the sharp disruption of 2020.
Measurement system
Both panels use percent over time. The top chart runs on a roughly 58 to 64 percent participation scale, and the bottom chart runs on a 0 to 20 percent unemployment scale, with one line for the Black population and one for the average in each panel.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The top panel pairs two close but separated lines that trend gradually before dropping sharply in 2020, while the bottom panel shows a wider gap between the Black line and the average line throughout most of the decade. The small page counter and Prev and Next buttons signal that this is only the first screen of a larger step-through sequence.
Main takeaway from the visual
The pandemic erased labor-market progress rather than simply interrupting it. In the top panel the Black participation line stays below the average even during the expansion and then falls sharply in 2020, while in the bottom panel Black unemployment remains higher than the average throughout and spikes much more dramatically during the crisis.
Key standout values or extremes
Before the COVID-19 shock, labor-force participation for the Black population had climbed back into the low 60s while the average sat near the low 63s, but the 2020 drop opens the gap again. In unemployment, the Black line begins near the mid-teens early in the decade, falls to around 6 percent before the crisis, and then spikes back into the mid-teens in 2020, while the average line falls toward roughly 4 percent before jumping to around 15 and then dropping more quickly.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This page uses a step-through sequence. The viewer can use the Prev and Next controls to move across multiple screens, with the displayed chart marked as screen 01 of 03 in the embedded view.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.