Last Hired, First Fired: Black, Latinx Workers and the Fight for Jobs

During the summer of 2019, Baron accepted a new job as a regional sales manager for a luxury travel company, earning a well-deserved boost in his 24-year career span in the travel industry. He saw it all crumbling down with the onset of the pandemic.

By April, Baron’s employer decided to reduce employee hours; moved some of its full-time staff to part-time; attempted to implement a work-share program; then consolidated its various departments—all to prevent the bloodletting. With the consolidation of his team, Baron found himself fighting for one of two available sales positions in Florida. In total, he says about 50 of his fellow sales colleagues across the business were going after 10 open spots. “It turned into the Hunger Games,” said the father of two, who was furloughed in May.

Though he was eventually laid off in July, Baron learned that he had scored the highest among all of those who interviewed. Still, the company chose to keep its senior sales staff. “Out of all of the folks who applied for the position, I was the one with the least amount of seniority,” said Baron, who had to wait four months to receive his first UI payment. “[But] it looks like it was last hired, first fired.”

Baron’s experience speaks to the pervasiveness of racial discrimination within the workplace and in hiring. Pandemic or not, Black and Latinx workers are among the first to be laid off or furloughed during an economic recession; and when the economy shows signs of improving, they’re still among the last to find a new job. Unemployment among Black workers alone during the last three recessions has risen faster and tended to hover at higher levels longer than white workers, according to a study from the Center for American Progress.

While calling for a paycheck guarantee in order to ensure a more equitable recovery, Economist Darrick Hamilton recently wrote:

“Years after the official end of the Great Recession, more than 12 million remained unemployed—a disproportionate share were Black workers. This pattern is already repeating itself. As white unemployment rates started to trickle down last month, the Black unemployment rate continued to rise. This is an old story: In a recession, Black workers are often devalued as the “first fired, last hired.”

Eligibility for UI benefits requires that claimants search for, and not turn down, “suitable work,” though many work search requirements have been waived through the pandemic. Workers of color are still always at a disadvantage when competing for jobs, and the effects of the pandemic and economic crisis on the labor market only add to the pressure they’re feeling. How can workers be expected to “get back to work” when the jobs aren’t there? The jobs that do exist are unlikely to go to workers of color first or are jobs that white workers would find unsuitable—low paying, arduous labor that puts workers of color at a higher risk of contracting COVID, or volatile scheduling and unfairness in shifts, often presenting issues for parents that cannot afford childcare.

“Black and Latinx workers are risking their health to keep society running by working in devalued jobs in factories, grocery stores, and nursing homes,” said Jessica Fulton, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “These workers deserve to feel safe at work, and when they can't find work that keeps them safe, they still deserve to have the kinds of stable incomes that will allow them to plan for and afford expenses like food and rent.”

The January 2020 Census Population Survey found that newly hired Black workers were more likely to have jobs vulnerable to the pandemic, including sales positions and food preparation. These jobs were among the many first to go when state closures went into effect. If there was ever a time to level the playing field and break through such deeply rooted racial discrimination in hiring and the overall workplace, it is now.

Work Search Requirements Serve as a Constant Reminder of Discrimination in Hiring

When a recession hits and businesses start to downsize, it’s most often the senior positions that are protected, as was also the case for Brandy, who had been working as a social worker in New York City for over a year before she was laid off. “It was me and another coworker who lost our jobs,” said Brandy. “People with the most seniority kept their jobs, but we were the first fired.”

It took Brandy 10 weeks just to apply for benefits, encountering so many issues that she needed to reach the call center for support. When we spoke with Brandy in July, her application was still pending. Apart from spending multiple hours a day trying to navigate the UI system online or over the phone, Brandy is looking for work. “It’s tough, nobody answers, you can’t reach offices, you want to work remotely, but there are no callbacks.” She hasn’t heard back from her last employer, either. “They say there is a lot of change. I’m hoping for a callback or getting another position, but it is difficult.”

Often, when businesses do begin to-rehire, especially in a labor market where many people are out of work, they are able to rewrite positions and lower wages, effectively forcing jobseekers to compete for lower quality and lower paying jobs than they had before.

It is also likely that many jobs won’t soon return, if they return at all. Amid his job search, Baron has yet to find something that meets his skill level and has even entertained leaving the travel industry altogether, out of concern over how the industry will be impacted by the pandemic. In his home state of Florida, the Department of Equal Opportunity had required applicants to take an initial skills review, register with a one-stop career center for reemployment services, and to contact at least five prospective employers each week to continue receiving benefits.

“I want to be hopeful about the future, but it's hard to think that things are going to get better,” said Baron, adding that he applied for a middle school basketball coaching position, considering his daughter plays. “So right now, I’m being very cautious about everything.”

Like Baron, Brandy is also having a hard time remaining optimistic. Receiving benefits would be critical for Brandy, as it is for millions of other people that have lost work. She said the additional money will help her pay her rent and other household essentials. As she waits for her unemployment benefits, she finds solace during morning walks in the park. “You work hard, you do your best, and at some point, you just feel cast aside. I’m exasperated already.”

Among our interviewees, there are also those who were furloughed and are still waiting to be called back to work. The longer they wait, the more they question their employer’s motives. “I am the only African American in my entire company, and they’ve opened up,'' said Ryan from Lexington, whose employer reopened its business in early June. “No one has called me back, and they’ve called all the rest of my counterparts to come back in and they are making very good money…it seems like a good old fella’s system where they take care of themselves first.”

Rooting Out Inequity in Hiring

Baron, Brandy, and Ryan are not alone in their experiences. As the economy recovers, the government must take steps to ensure that workers of color are not left behind—identifying barriers that keep Black and Latinx workers from accessing jobs and placing them at a clear disadvantage. Businesses should consider creating work-sharing programs that would allow employers to spread layoffs across their entire workforce instead of laying some people off entirely, while supplementing the remainder of workers’ wages through UI. As companies begin rehiring, they should be incentivized to notify former employees first, giving those workers an opportunity to apply for those jobs while also decreasing training costs for the business, as former employees will be familiar with company operations. State policies, which often benefit employers over employees, could also be modified to better serve workers —notifying them when a former employer has started rehiring. Finally, the federal government should ensure that all states provide unemployment benefits for at least 26 weeks, long enough to cover the average length of unemployment periods for all workers, especially workers of color.