Despite an optimistic jobs report, new data shows Native American unemployment remains staggeringly high
Last week’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report delivered a burst of good news, with the U.S. economy adding 470,000 jobs in January and revised data from the November and December reports showing that over 700,000 more jobs were added at the end of 2021 than initially estimated.
While these topline numbers received the majority of press coverage, there was a second important story inside this month’s labor market data. For the first time, the BLS released monthly data on American Indian and Alaska Native unemployment.
Although this data has previously been available in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, prior to this month it had not been separately reported. That made it difficult for nonexperts to discern the well-being of Indigenous people in the labor market, and contributed to Native Americans’ further erasure in mainstream U.S. society. The new data is a significant step forward…