Employment disparities between Black and White Americans widened in August but narrowed between men and women, even as jobless rates came down across the board.

The Black unemployment rate in August was 13 per cent, down from 14.6 per cent in July. This put the unemployment rate at about 1.8 times that of White Americans, which dropped to 7.3 per cent last month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. The unemployment rate for White Americans was below the overall rate, which fell to 8.4 per cent in August from 10.2 per cent.

The gap between the female and male jobless rate narrowed to 0.3 percentage point as the female unemployment rate declined to 8.6 per cent from 10.6 per cent the prior month. The male rate fell to 8.3 per cent. Before the pandemic, fewer women were unemployed than men.

The large drop in the female jobless coincided with an increase in the participation rate for women of a tenth of a percentage point, to 56.1 per cent. The rate for men rose to 67.7 per cent from 67.1 per cent.

The biggest decrease in unemployment was seen by Latino Americans. The Latino jobless rate, which was the highest among the biggest race groups during the pandemic, fell by 2.4 percentage points to 10.5 per cent. The drop was even greater for Latina women ages 20 and over, with a decline of 3.5 percentage points to 10.5 per cent.

The Asian unemployment rate, which before the pandemic was the lowest among the race groups, fell to 10.7 per cent from 12 per cent the previous month.

The employment-to-population ratio rose to 56.5 per cent. It was 61.1 per cent before the pandemic. This measure offers a broad picture of the country’s employment conditions because it counts the entire population, including those who may be retired and children who are too young to work. The ratio for women, at 51.3 per cent, is up from 45.8 per cent in April at the height of the coronavirus lockdowns.