If the layoffs outlined in the proposed Chicago budget come to fruition, labor leaders say they will greatly impact African American, Latino, and Asian workers who make up 85 percent of the cuts, according to their analysis. This could be devastating for communities already struggling with high unemployment rates.

While the national unemployment rate is 9 percent, African Americans currently battle an unemployment rate of just over 15 percent. The figure is 11.4 percent for Latinos.

“All working people are struggling in this economy, but times are especially hard for black and Latino families,” AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer said. “City employees are required to live in Chicago, and they are economic anchors in many neighborhoods. Destroying hundreds of middle-class jobs is the worst thing politicians could do right now, but that’s exactly what they’re doing in this budget.”

The union made the projections on who will be affected by the layoffs by looking at nine jobs they represent, which account for 222 of the proposed layoffs.

There are 800 layoffs laid out in Mayor Rahm Emanuel's budget, but the details on most of those jobs has been kept under wraps. Union officials say hundreds of additional layoffs are expected for the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Support Services, for which minorities make up 86 percent and 88 percent of frontline workers, respectively. Labor leaders say aldermen, who are expected to vote on the proposed city budget on Wednesday, are concerned about the impact layoffs will have on communities already struggling with high unemployment and seemingly fewer job prospects. 

“Aldermen have expressed concern about the disproportionate impact of city layoffs on communities of color,” Bayer said in a press release. “Their concerns are well-founded. In a recession that has hit hardest in those communities, Mayor Emanuel’s layoffs would fall disproportionately on them once again.”