Labor Day 2020: AAPI workers getting hit hard by by unemployment, COVID-19 and racism

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The closure of hundreds of Chinese restaurants includes the jobs that go with them.

Recent data from a federal labor study shows that the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic is taking a big toll among Asian Americans workers. If they are not getting hit by unemployment, they're getting slammed by the coronavirus and targeted by racists.

According to the Labor Department's employment report on Friday, the jobless rate for Asian Americans in August was 10.7%. That far exceeds unemployment for White Americans, at 7.3%, and for workers overall, at 8.4%. It also runs counter to the recent trend, in which unemployment historically has been lower for Asian Americans, who consistently have had the highest rate of employment of any major ethnic group in the U.S. 

In addition, while Asian Americans made up 16% of the California labor force in February 2020, they filed 19% of initial unemployment claims over the two-and-a-half months of the shutdown. In New York state, they accounted for 9% of the labor force but filed 14% of claims by mid-April, according to ananalysis, by researchers from the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and Ong & Associates.

"The unemployment among Asian-American workers increased more than unemployment among White workers in the COVID-19 downturn," Pew Research Center's Rakesh Kochhar told CBS. "Those who could not telework or those who worked in industries in which services are delivered in person, such as restaurants or health care or personal care, were much hit much harder."

Restaurant cooks and waiters, senior care givers, nail salons, health care workers, small business owners, were all areas where many AAPI workers tended to gravitate.

And it's not going to get any better. As the summer jobs created end with the season, the thousands of Census Bureau jobs faze out -- unemployment is sure to rise.

The rate of coronavirus infections, while moderating in most states, is settling at an unacceptable elevated level. As of Sept. 4, there have been almost 2 million infections and 

Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in a speech on Thursday that U.S. economic activity may not return to pre-pandemic levels until late 2022.

Using data from the federal government, including unemployment claims and the U.S. Census Bureau, UCLA economist Paul Ong concluded that AAPI and Whites started out on similar financial footing before the coronavirus hit the U.S. — but by the end of Spring, the UCLA research found that Asian American joblessness jumped ahead by 5%.

Compared with the rest of the California labor force, the UCLA study found that Asian Americans with only a high school education filed almost 50% more unemployed claims than whites with the same educational level.

In terms of businesses closures during the pandemic, the authors estimate that 233,000 Asian American small businesses closed from February to April, representing a decline of 28% over the two-month period. The 1.79 million non-Hispanic white small businesses that closed over the same period represented a decline of 17%, says the UCLA report.

Another report confirmed the UCLA study's findings. Businesses in industries that have been hit hardest by the pandemic are owned by Asians, according to consulting firm McKinsey. Although Asian Americans make up only 6% of the population, one quarter of all restaurants and hotels in the U.S. are owned by Asian Americans, who also own 17% of retail stores. 

"It's where they work, how they work, but on top of that it's also the anti-Asian American sentiments," Ong said.

Since its launch on March 19, 2020, Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition aimed at addressing anti-Asian American discrimination amid the pandemic, reports thatas of Aug. 5, it has received a total of 2,583 reports of discrimination against AAPIs across the U.S. 

McKinsey also blamed the impact to AAPI workers the anti-Asian racism, fueled in large part by the Trump administration insistence on using the term "China virus" in referring to COVID-19. 

Asian-owned businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. Customers have avoided these entrepreneurs out of fear of the virus and partly because of anger against Asians, in general, Chinese, in particular.

"Asian-owned businesses are overrepresented in sectors that have been hardest hit by COVID-19," McKinsey said. However, "the pandemic has exacerbated anti-Asian xenophobia and racism, which have historically acted as barriers to equity."

Customers would lash out at counter clerks if they were Asian or if the business was owned by Asians or simply informally boycott the business.

It's not only lower-paid Asians affected by the pandemic, the death rate among nurses and the senior and nursing home workers is disproportionately higher among Asians who make up a larger part of the workforce in these fields.

The report by New American Economy, a research organization that advocates for immigration policies that bolster the economy, told NBC that AAPI health care workers make up more than 20% of physicians and surgeons, about 14%t of whom are immigrants. And 1 in 11 nurses are AAPI. In California, Filipinos alone, make up 20% of the RN's in hospitals.

According to the NAE report, in Hawaii, AAPIs make up about 72% of health care workers. In New York, that early on was the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., AAPI comprise 12% of the health care workers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.