The study, co-authored by Sylvia Pulina, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University, found that all groups that are underrepresented compared to white employees performed worse in the post-pandemic job market.
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Anti-Asian hate crimes in major U.S. cities increased by more than 180% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa via AP Images
A first-of-its-kind study led by researchers at Northeastern University finds that racial bias and political rhetoric against Asians and other underrepresented groups in the U.S. are changing after the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated what kind of impact this had on the employment situation.
The study, “Public Opinion, Racial Prejudice, and Labor Market Outcomes in the United States,” published June 17 in Human Nature Behavior, found that unemployment among Asians in the United States increased from April 2020 to May 2021. For the first time, the unemployment rate exceeded the white unemployment rate. in modern history.
The study, co-authored by Sylvia Pulina, associate professor of economics at Northeastern University, found that all underrepresented groups, especially Asians, performed better in the post-pandemic job market than white employees. It turned out to be low.
The study found that Asians were more likely to be unemployed in jobs that required face-to-face interaction, a statistically significant 7%.
The study also found that if Asians were still employed, their weekly earnings would be reduced by 8% on average.
Consistent with the role of public opinion in influencing labor market outcomes, this study found that anti-Asian rhetoric may have been more influential in heavily Republican states. did.
Sylvia Purina, Northeastern associate professor of economics; Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Furthermore, while negative changes in views toward Asians are widespread across the political spectrum, they are more pronounced among those who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 and among those who report watching Fox News. It was strong.
Overall, this study suggests that anti-China political rhetoric by politicians and the media likely played a role.
“I knew there was discrimination against this group of people because I had seen news reports about people being attacked,” Prina said. “I didn’t know there were consequences beyond verbal and physical acts of violence.”
Using nationally representative data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the main source of official labor market statistics in the United States, researchers found that Asians in jobs with a high likelihood of face-to-face interaction They found that they were more likely to lose their jobs. The beginning of the pandemic.
At the same time, anti-Asian hate crimes in large U.S. cities increased by more than 180% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
In fact, a report by Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition dedicated to ending discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, found that 1 in 5 Asian Americans, or about 4.8 million people, have died during the pandemic. He said he experienced a hate incident during his first year at the school. .
According to the study, “anti-China rhetoric by Donald Trump and right-wing media likely played an important role in people’s perceptions of Asians and their willingness to interact with them as workers.” It is said that
President Trump first used the term “China virus” on Twitter on March 16, 2020, and repeated the phrase more than 20 times by March 30, according to a report by the database website Factbase.
Asian workers are by far the most highly educated racial group, with nearly 70% holding at least a bachelor’s degree, according to data used in the study.
They also had the highest average weekly income at $1,361, 19% more than white workers and far more than black and Hispanic workers, according to the study.
Since the start of the pandemic, CPS data has shown that each underrepresented race is about 3 percentage points more likely to be unemployed than white Americans.
After the start of the pandemic, Asians who worked in-person were 7% more likely to be unemployed, the study found.
Those who kept their jobs saw an 8% decrease in income, or $75.50 less in weekly wages, compared to the decline experienced by white workers.
“Asian workers who worked in-person were more likely to lose their jobs and more likely to have their pay cut,” Prina says.
The study’s definition of Asian includes ethnicities such as Indian, Pakistani, Iranian and Nepalese, and the results should be interpreted as an underestimate, Prina said.
While many of the job losses were temporary, Purina said job losses have long-term effects on unemployed people and their families.
Prina says the study raises alarm about the effects of divisive racial rhetoric.
“It’s a warning in the sense of, ‘Look, if you criticize certain groups that are underrepresented, there can be great danger[to them],'” she says.
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