Who did worse? a comparison of US and British non–white unemployment 1970–1998

Abstract

US and British unemployment rates for non–white males and females are compared over the period 1970–1998. Whereas US rates remained fairly steady, there was a marked increase in British non–white unemployment rates. The reasons for this poor performance, relative to the good performance of US non–whites are explored. It is shown that non–white unemployment behaves in different ways across the two countries. For example, British rates rise faster in a recession than white rates, whereas US rates appear not to follow this British hypercyclical pattern.