About 745,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, which is 9,000 more than the previous week. 

The report, released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that the unemployment rate sits at 6.2 percent. 

Among major working groups, Black Americans’ unemployment rate is 9.9 percent, while it sits at 5.6 percent for white Americans. 

About 4.1 million people have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.

BNC’s Aiyana Crystal spoke to a Howard University economist about the concerning unemployment numbers and how it’s impacting the Black community. 

“People don’t have money, they’re frightened when they lose money and they are going to pull back in consumption,” said Dr. William Spriggs. 

He says the “disturbing trends” in unemployment show that we aren’t recovering as quickly as we would like to. 

More Americans are receiving jobless aid from two federal programs that Congress established in March with the CARES Act. 

One extends aid to self-employed individuals and the other assists those who have exhausted state unemployment benefits, but they expire mid-March. 

According to a new report released by the Century Foundation, this could leave more than 11 million Americans without income. 

“If legislators don’t get it under control, we aren’t going to have a robust rebound. We aren’t going to have jobs fast enough to absorb everyone unemployed, and you see from numbers disrupting people getting benefits will interfere with a healthy rebound, ” Spriggs said. 

Congressional Democrats are rushing to pass a COVID-19 relief package using a process known as budget reconciliation. 

This will allow them to approve the legislation using a simple majority. 

Start Your Day hosts Sharon Reed and Mike Hill say the pandemic’s economic downfall plagues the Black community.