The Relationship Between Race and Ethnicity, Type of Work, and Covid-19 Infection Rates

The initial waves of the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affected minority racial and ethnic population groups in the United States. Both Black and Hispanic Americans experienced higher infection rates, and in many regions Black Americans also experienced higher death rates. One hypothesis put forward during the early stages of the pandemic is that differences in types of work done by different racial and ethnic groups could account for some of the differences in infection rates. Different jobs have different levels of exposure to the disease, and workers from minority racial and ethnic groups disproportionately work in jobs that require being in close proximity to other people.1 In the early stages of the pandemic, lockdown rules delineated certain industries as “essential,” requiring many of their employees to continue working on site, while many workers in “nonessential” industries were able to work from home. Following the initial lockdown period, workers in nonessential industries saw their businesses reopen on site at different times and to differing degrees across the country. States varied considerably in terms of how closely reopening schedules were tied to infection rates.