The Great Recession of 2007–2009 produced widespread employment losses for communities of color and white families alike—losses that have yet to be overcome amid the still tentative economic recovery. All U.S. households were severely hurt by the recession but communities of color experienced larger losses than whites. This also means that, as the economic recovery deepens and the labor market recovers, communities of color will have to climb out of a deeper hole to regain the same level of economic security as they had before the crisis.
The level of economic security enjoyed by communities of color before the housing and financial crises drove our economy into the ditch was far lower than that of white families (though better than their current circumstances). The last business cycle, which lasted from the beginning of the last economic recession in March 2001 to the beginning of the Great Recession in December 2007, did little to close the economic gap between communities of color and white families and in some cases even exacerbated the difference in economic security. The Great Recession thus made a bad situation worse.
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