A Spike in the Asian American Job Market Is Raising Concerns

We’re not ones to shout out fake news willy nilly, but all the recent headlines that are telling us how the U.S. job market is strong, citing low unemployment numbers and steady growth, may not actually be entirely true. If you dig just a little deeper, the real picture isn’t quite so rosy for everyone. As Investopedia pointed out in a recent report, there’s a growing ‘tale of two job markets’. Asian

Americans just might be on the losing side of it.

Since the spring of 2025, job losses among Asian American workers spiked abruptly. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data shows that unemployment for Asian workers rose to 3.7% in August, up roughly 10% from April, while unemployment for white workers actually went down during the same stretch—a gap that suggests Asian Americans are feeling the economic slowdown earlier and more severely than their white counterparts.

Minority workers have long been among those who are “last hired, first fired”, meaning that when companies start making cuts, it’s often communities of color that take the first hit. Many Asian American workers are also working mid-tier or entry-level roles with less job protection and limited upward mobility, making them more vulnerable when layoffs come around.

But there’s a new twist this time with the rise of AI and automation. As companies rush to integrate artificial intelligence into their workflows, a lot of routine clerical, logistics, and customer service jobs are getting automated away. Those roles are held mostly by workers of color, including many Asian Americans. So, while tech companies might be creating efficiencies, they’re also creating unemployment in the very communities who are the least equipped to absorb it.

Asian, Black, and Hispanic workers make up roughly one-third of the U.S. workforce, and when that much of the workforce is struggling, it hits everyone. Less consumer spending. Lower productivity. Smaller tax revenues. It all adds up. So, while the national numbers might look fine on paper, they don’t reflect any of the underlying, mostly hidden problems. The so-called “strong” labor market could actually be a lot weaker than it seems.

Photo by Eric Prouzet/Unsplash.