The One-Two Punch to Black America

to recover from. But first, here's what happened today. More than five million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total to two million over the last month. It's the fourth week of astronomical levels of jobless claims. The level of unemployment is now so high it a effectively erases a decade's worth of job creation. The CEO of Airbus said I'm a call with investors that the

global aerospace sector is facing its greatest challenge ever. Demand at the world's biggest planemaker has slumped, as airlines suffering without passengers ground planes, and slash orders for new ones. The numbers are just the latest in a string of signs the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on individual paychecks and businesses alike, and President Donald Trump is once

more talking about reopening parts of the economy. The President told US governors on a conference call today that some states would be able to reopen businesses and schools before May one, when federal social distancing guidelines are set to expire. It's not clear that individual governors will follow guidelines set by the President, though Also today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended the state's lockdown for two more weeks to May.

And in Europe, some countries are cracking down even while others weig loosening restrictions on movement. The UK added three weeks to its restrictions as total infections exceeded one hundred thousand. There may be one small bright spot for Americans who have mourned the loss of live sports amid the outbreak. Golf is coming back to the US, but don't expect

to hear that soft golf clap. The PGA announced Thursday that an altered schedule of events will resume with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, on June eighth, but it and other games will lack a live audience, and now for today's main story. Some cities and states have released data on actual health outcomes from the new coronavirus. Their reports are showing more and more that Black people are dying at disproportionate rates to their percentage of the population.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black people made up thirty three percent of all hospitalizations for COVID nineteen, the disease caused by the virus. That's more than double their share of the US population. In New York, the epicenter of the outbreak, a recent statistics showed Black people made up eighteen percent of deaths, but we're only nine percent of the population. Recently, McKinsey and Company released a report that shows it's not just Black

Americans health that will suffer. The virus will likely have a devastating effect on their jobs and future earnings. I recently spoke with Bloomberg reporter Donald Moore about some of the social and economic factors that have led to higher case and mortality rates among black communities. So, Donald, you had a chance to talk to McKenzie and company about this topic. Now they've just issued a report about the impact of this virus on African American communities. What did

they find? Di did a study of the entire us of areas that they call at risk that have lower access to healthcare, fewer hospital beds, and what they found was those areas tend to be predominantly African American. Off the bat, Black African Americans tend to have lower access to healthcare and tell us a bit more about these areas. Are there other factors that Mackenzie and others have pointed to as to why people in these communities have been

affected more by coronavirus. A big reason it's structural. There's a term for what they call food deserts that refer to places that have limited or even no access to good quality fresh food. So for example, Detroit, for a while in the two thousands, there wasn't a single grocery chain in this any limits. So those areas tend to be overrepresented by Black Americans. Like usually large cities, um you know, underdeveloped areas when you don't have grocery stores

or farmers markets to go to. What they end up doing is going to convenience stores or um fast food restaurants, which are high caloric foods, lots of sugar, lots of salt, you know, dunk food, and eating those foods tend to lead to things like obesity, which leads to things like hypertension and diabetes. And what about jobs in these communities

do those also play a role? So there's been a lot of discussion over what we call central jobs, jobs that have to be formed even during the lockdown to keep society running, and Blacks tend to be overrepresented in

those jobs. So, for instance, even though Blacks are underrepresented amongst physicians, they are overrepresented amongst nursing assistance thirty three percent of nursing assistants to African Americans, forty percent of orderly or African American, forty percent of psychiatricates or African American.

So you have these positions African Americans take up a large share of where not only can they not socially distanced from other people, but the people they are interact with usually tend to be sick and in many cases have coronavirus. What was the earning gap between Black Americans and white Americans before all? This started before the pandemic.

So the most recent numbers from the Economic Policy Institute, Media and Black wages were about seventy three point three percent of white wages in two thousand and eighteen, so roughly three quarters of what whites make. Black Americans tend to be overrepresenting the central jobs, but they're also overrepresenting

jobs that are more likely to be laid off. So if you look at like the service industry for instance, or retail, those jobs are essentially being shut down because of the lockdowns in place all over the country, and Black Americans tend to be overrepresented in those positions, so they're going to be one of one of the first ones to be laid off. As a community, Can anything be done right now to curb consequences? Um, I'm thinking in terms of say hazard pay or or even just

things like testing during the pandemic. Hazard paid definitely helps. Increasing essential worker salaries give them a boost, especially when there are a lot of African Americans who hold two jobs, so they might have a job at a grocery change, for instance, but then they'll lose the job as a waiter. So the hazard paid definitely helps in that regard. But from what I've seen, what I've heard talking to experts, the best way to help us is just increased testing.

They said to make sure that workers are safe, even people who are laid off for safe or even the elderly. The best way is to find out who's infected and be able to isolate them so they don't inspect others. As Donald and his Bloomberg co author Jeff Green point out, predominantly black neighborhoods have been statistically less likely to get

tested for coronavirus, but that soon may change. Admiral Brett, you are President Donald Trump's testings are said, the administration is actively discussing adding minority group to the priority list for testing. That was my discussion with Donald Moore, whose article co written with Jeff Green, on how the coronavirus is hurting Black Americans was published this week on Bloomberg dot com. And that's it for the Prognosis Daily Edition.

For more on the pandemic from our bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com, slash coronavirus and one Small favor. If you like what we're doing, please take a second to rate the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily Edition is hosted by me Laura Carlson. The show was produced by me Tophor, forehead

Jordan Gospore and Magnus Henrickson. Today's main story was reported by Donald Moore and Jeff green A digital music by Leo Sidrian. Our editors are Francesca Levi and Rick Shine. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening, h