Story at a glance:
- People’s work expectations have changed during the pandemic.
- The Black unemployment rate is at 8.8 percent, which is nearly double the White unemployment rate.
- Mimconnect helps diversity professionals land jobs that are mid and senior level.
The pandemic has prevented people from doing their jobs and even caused job losses. However, another major impact of this pandemic is a worker shortage – people’s work expectations have changed, and they demand more as they face economic challenges.
So as September jobs numbers are expected to surpass August under President Biden’s administration, there will be 8.4 million people listed as unemployed while about 10 million jobs are available, The Washington Post reported.
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But out of the in demand jobs available, Black people, specifically Black women, will be faced with finding jobs that are applicable to them: for example, jobs that pay well for someone with a child(ren) and/or that does require a high education.
That’s because in a sea of low-level jobs, getting notice for a higher paying job as a Black person is a challenge. Even those with a bachelor’s or advanced college degree have indicated that their recovery from the pandemic is more difficult than white people’s. The Black unemployment rate is at 8.8 percent, which is nearly double the white unemployment rate, The Post reported.
The least recovered during the pandemic are Black women, having more than 550,000 fewer adult Black women working now than in February 2020.
Jasmine Yates, a Black woman from Houston who has been job hunting for months as an electronic engineer or receptionist, told the Post that she would apply for a job, be one out of hundreds, sometimes thousands, and not get a response back.
“If someone actually went on Indeed or ZipRecruiter and saw how often they get ghosted or how many hundreds of people apply for one job, they would see that the struggle is real,” she told the Post.
At one establishment, the job application said the pay would be between $10 and $16 per hour, but in person, Yates was offered $9.
Another burden on Black women is access to child care.
There are a lot of retail jobs available, but many are minimum wage jobs and require long in person attendance.
Another disparity is not having access to a computer or the internet to do remote demanding jobs.
In a time of need when there is both a pandemic and workplace diversity crisis, agencies such as Mimconnect, which stands for Minorities in Media Connect, helps diverse candidates with free resources to networking and opportunities to meet with professionals in the media and tech space to assist with their career development.
Since 2016, Mimconnect has helped diverse professionals with more than 10,000 members, monthly digital programming and job placement.
“We’ve known for a long time that it’s not about telling underrepresented candidates to apply. It’s about showing them they belong. In Good Company will help connect candidates with companies that are committed to not only recruiting but retaining diverse talent,” said Netta Dobbins, CEO Mimconnect and co-founder.
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