Locked Out of the Labor Market A New State-Level Measure of Incarceration and Inequality
Overview
Every month, the government releases an official employment report detailing fluctuations in unemployment rates across racial groups. These numbers disregard everyone in jail or prison, a population disproportionately made up of Black people and low-wage workers. These metrics matter: the systematic exclusion of incarcerated people from official statistics creates a false impression of economic well-being and racial equity in the United States.
This brief aims to rectify the invisibility of incarcerated people in official unemployment statistics by introducing the concept of an “expanded unemployment rate.” Vera provides previously unavailable statistics at the state and national levels and discusses their implications. In doing so, this brief provides a more accurate measure of racial and economic inequality.
Key Takeaway
By including people in prisons and jails, Vera’s expanded unemployment metric reveals that some states have substantially higher unemployment rates than are typically recognized. Furthermore, Vera’s metric reveals the true scale of racial disparities in economic opportunity, particularly in places with high levels of incarceration.
Publication Highlights
The disproportionate incarceration of Black men masks extreme racial economic inequities in many states, including California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Vera’s new metric shows that mass incarceration in the United States is a substantial driver of unemployment, with potentially devastating economic impacts.