New working-age hires are mostly people of color for first time: analysis

People of color make up the bulk of new working-age hires for the first time ever, according to an analysis from The Washington Post.

Women have driven the trend, according to the Post, which cited Labor Department data going back to the 1970s. The trend has been driven both by a wave of retirements among white baby boomers and another wave of minority women entering the workforce in 2015, the newspaper noted.

{mosads}It added, however, that the demographics could be some of the first affected in a slowing job market.

“We’ve seen a lot of gains in employment among lower-income and lower-education groups,” Marianne Wanamaker, an economist and former member of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, told the Post. “But it is precisely those groups that are vulnerable to layoffs if economic activity slows.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said that monetary policymakers should work to sustain the gains in minority communities, the Post noted, adding that data from the central bank indicate the average white family still has a net worth of nearly 10 times that of a typical African American or Latino family.

“People who live and work in low- and middle-income communities tell us that this job market is the best anyone can recall,” Powell said in a speech last month in Jackson, Wyo., according to the newspaper.

“Our challenge now is to do what monetary policy can do to sustain the expansion so that the benefits of the strong jobs market extend to more of those still left behind,” he added.