Watching labor data on Black workers in the U.S. can offer helpful clues about the strength – or weakness – of the economy, and even signal economic changes before they show up in the headline print. That's because Black workers are more able to find employment in strong labor markets and can be the first to lose their jobs when the economy weakens. "Black workers are the canary in the coal mine – are you actually hiring people?" "The Black unemployment rate continues to be the highest, indicating that Black workers are facing more challenges, having a more difficult time securing employment," said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute's program on race, ethnicity and the economy. "We know that for every one percentage-point change in the national unemployment rate, we typically get close to a two percentage-point change in the Black unemployment rate," she said.

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