We’re not the only ones looking at this. Quoting liberally from Axios,
The Federal Reserve made a commitment to an inclusive recovery, announcing a mandate to to achieve maximum employment should be “broad-based and inclusive” — meaning it would let the economy run hotter to pull more people into the job market. It also aimed to pay attention to employment stats for different segments of the population instead of just the overall numbers.
In context, Higher interest rates typically slow the economy, leading to higher unemployment rates. And while the overall jobless rate is now low by historical standards, the Black unemployment rate is double that of whites and the Hispanic rate exceeds whites by more than a point.
A recent paper that Axios’ Neil Irwin wrote about shows that even in a tight labor market, a cut in the Fed’s target interest rate was followed by Black employment growth of about .91 percentage points.
The critical jobs numbers report comes out Friday.
Why do we care?
I wanted to highlight another effort that is tracking the changes when intentional choices are made. By adding the dimension of tracking the impact of financial decisions on different racial groups, the Fed is able to make more informed decisions.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure, right?