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The data show that Black workers had a harder time getting unemployment benefits than their White counterparts in a system that both predated the pandemic and is left behind after the expiration of a temporary federal program. In response to a request filed under the state’s open-records law, Georgia’s labor department provided anonymized data for 2.25 million regular unemployment claims filed in the year after March 1, 2020, when pandemic job losses began to accelerate. States Balk at Providing Data on Jobless-Benefits Denials Almost all 50 states refused to share such data when approached by Bloomberg this year, though most acknowledged gathering the information as part of the claims process.
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Department of Labor doesn’t require states to report demographic data about workers who are denied unemployment, leaving a blind spot in the world’s richest economy. “In these states where a large workforce is people of color, fewer and fewer people are getting benefits as more and more restrictions have been put into place that have made it harder for workers to get benefits in the traditional state system,” says Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. What happened in Georgia is emblematic of a system that since its birth has often served Black workers poorly, especially in southern states. The Georgia labor department said in a statement that it can’t comment on individual cases like Belcher’s but that it processes all claims for unemployment benefits “in accordance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations without regard to race, ethnicity or gender.” “No one would just say, ‘OK, you were denied,’ and so if you feel like that was done unjustly, that these are your next steps.” “It was just so incredibly hard to deal with because no one would answer the phone, no one would answer emails,” Belcher says. It wasn’t until the following January that she found out her application had been denied because she voluntarily quit her job. So she applied for unemployment in September 2020. In her mind, she was a victim of changes caused by the pandemic.
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Often left alone in a place that once had other workers and fearing for her safety, Belcher submitted her resignation. When she pointed to a pad where he could tap his fare card, he smashed her hand on the gate.īelcher requested a transfer to another station, where the same man walked off a train and stood behind her, startling her. Then, one day, she was assaulted by a man who refused to pay his fare. Outfitted in a mask, gloves and goggles, Belcher, 56, spent the early months of the pandemic as one of the essential workers keeping Atlanta’s trains running.