Released on July 22, 2020, our new report unveils the disparate economic effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Asian Americans, pointing to a critical need in expanding financial relief for all workers to counter the worsening effects of the crisis and strengthen recovery efforts.

In particular, those Asian American businesses found in urban ethnic enclaves have been found to be more deeply affected than others, as anecdotal evidence reveals the extent to which xenophobia and racial discrimination has impacted these businesses. However, there has been little empirical data to demonstrate the overall effect on the Asian American labor market.

The new analysis, in collaboration with researchers from the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Ong & Associates, used employment and labor data for California and New York to better understand the nature, pattern and magnitude of the COVID-19 economic disruption to Asian Americans between March and May 2020.

This CNK report focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated preexisting food insecurity issues and inequalities. Although other research studies have documented an initial increase in food security during the pandemic, the researchers here (Tom Larson, Paul M. Ong, Don Mar, and James H. Peoples Jr.) found a continuing rise in food insecurity.

The study analyzed data from the US Census Household Pulse Survey (HPS) covering 13 weeks from April 23rd to July 21st to assess patterns of inequality and systemic disparities brought on by the pandemic. The results affirm how the impacts are disproportionate among children, African American, and Latinx populations, while also affecting White middle-class families, and offering policy solutions and strategies to address this growing food insecurity crisis.

In collaboration with Ong & Associates, this report by CNK examines the digital divide in virtual learning during the latter part of the 2019‒20 academic year when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to end face-to-face teaching. The analysis uses data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey (HPS) covering the 12-week period from April 23 to July 2 to assess the pattern and trajectory of availability to computers and Internet, focusing on racial, income, and other systematic disparities. The digital divide predates the current public-health crisis, but the findings show that the pandemic exacerbated the digital divide among minority and low-income households.

The observed disparities in limited technological resources for virtual learning probably is not just a current and temporary phenomenon. Unchecked, the digital inequality threatens to widen the racial and income gap in educational achievement and contributes to a reproduction of intergenerational inequality.