Abstract
The recession associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic started in March 2020 as a result of state government mandates for closures of non-essential businesses, and individuals’ decisions to limit their time in public for essential needs only. The food service industry reports high unemployment rates during COVID-19. It has been established that minority groups have had the highest rates of unemployment throughout COVID-19, and it is important to quantify both the magnitude and the potential causes for the differential impact these minority groups have suffered during COVID-19. The empirical model used in this study is a probit regression model to estimate for the probability of unemployment that is used to examine the potential reasons for the differential impacts that COVID-19 pandemic has had on unemployment rates by minority groups. The dependent variable in this study is employment status and the explanatory variable of interest captures the effect of COVID-19 on minority employment for each follow up month during the pandemic from April 2020 through March 2021. This study includes a food service industry interaction term to explain the differential impact of unemployment by minority group. The findings from this study report the probability for Black Americans being unemployed during the early stages of COVID-19 decreased, however, they do show to be the minority group to experience an increase in the probability of being unemployed in the food service industry. The conclusion differs for Latinx Americans and Asian Americans. Both of these minority groups showed an increase in the probability of unemployment during the early stages of COVID-19 and showed a decrease in the probability of being unemployed in the food service industry.