A first-of-its-kind study, led by a Northeastern University researcher, examined how racial bias and political rhetoric against Asians and other underrepresented groups in the United States impacted their employment status in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, “Public opinion, racial bias and labour market outcomes in the USA,” published June 17 in Human Nature Behavior, found that from April 2020 to May 2021 the unemployment rate of Asians surpassed that of whites in the U.S. for the first time in modern history.
The study, co-authored by Silvia Prina, associate professor of economics at Northeastern, found that all underrepresented groups — but most notably Asians — performed poorly in the post-pandemic job market compared to white employees. The study found that Asians were more likely to be unemployed — by a statistically significant 7% — in jobs that required face-to-face interaction.
