New York City (CNN Business) The novel coronavirus has already dealt an unprecedented economic blow to a large portion of American workers, with a record 9.9 million people filing for unemployment over a two-week span from March 16 to March 29. The full scope of the damage remains unclear, but researchers and labor force leaders say the financial pain caused by the crisis probably won't be evenly distributed along racial lines. "When white America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia," Steven Brown, a research associate at the Urban Institute domestic policy research organization, told CNN Business. affecting Government data shows the outbreak is more concentrated in major US metropolitan areas like New York City, New Orleans and the nation's southeast where greater percentages of black and Latino Americans live. In New York City, the virus is disproportionatelyaffecting lower-income neighborhoods in Queens, Harlem and the Bronx, which have denser populations of immigrants of color, African Americans and Hispanics.

Source: CNN April 02, 2020 20:15 UTC