In November 2020, we* collected the first wave of data for The Longitudinal Study of Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 (DSL-COVID). This is a nationally representative survey with an oversample of Asian Americans. Our statistics are adjusted with weights so that our results are generalizable to the US population. Our survey includes 1,768 whites, 592 Asian Americans, 309 Black Americans, and 355 Hispanics.
GENERAL EXPERIENCES OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
- We define economic hardship as experience of household unemployment and/or financial hardship since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Overall, 28% of our sample report that either they or a member of their household lost their job or became unemployed as a result of COVID-19.
- 54% of our sample report that they experienced at least some financial hardship due to lack of income and/or financial support during COVID-19.
ECONOMIC HARDSHIP BY RACE
- Racial minorities have higher rates of experiencing both unemployment and financial hardship due to COVID-19 compared to whites.
- Hispanics experienced the highest rates of unemployment and financial hardship relative to whites.
- Black Americans had the same rate of unemployment but higher rates of financial hardship than whites.
- Asian Americans also experienced a higher rate of unemployment and financial hardship relative to whites.
ECONOMIC HARDSHIP BY EDUCATION
- Respondents without college degrees reported higher rates of financial hardship compared to respondents with 4-year college degrees, despite experiencing similar rates of unemployment between two groups.
ECONOMIC HARDSHIP BY POLITICAL PARTY
- Democrats have the highest rates of experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
- Republicans have the lowest rates of experiencing unemployment and financial hardship due to COVID-19.
*Project PI=Grace Kao, IBM Professor of Sociology, Yale University.
Graduate Student RAs: Hannah Tessler and Meera Choi, Department of Sociology, Yale University.
**We gratefully acknowledge support from the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University.
Suggested Citation:
Choi, Meera, Hannah Tessler, and Grace Kao. 2021. “Racial Minorities Experienced More Economic Hardship Due to COVID-19 Compared to Whites.” Research Brief from The Longitudinal Study of Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 (DSL-COVID). https://campuspress.yale.edu/dslcovid/fact-sheet-4/.