LOS ANGELES — According to the Economic Policy Institute, the second quarter of 2024 saw a slight softening in a strong labor market as the national unemployment rate rose to 4%. 

The national Black unemployment rate also rose to 6.3%. They’re statistics that spotlight an issue that local organizations are trying to address with campaigns and new legislation. 

The California Worker Outreach Project and its Echo Black Voices campaign is a project that Dawn Modkiins, executive director of the Southern California Black Workers Hub, said aims to address worker rights violations, from hourly wages to discrimination and retaliation against whistleblowers. 

“It is access,” she said. “It is pathways and it is protections for Black workers. So even though we are securing opportunity and those pathways for Black workers at work, what we learned is that folks are not feeling safe.”

Employees like Fletcher Jones at ORA Cafe say it makes all the difference to work in a safe work environment. 

“It is a polarizing, different experience energetically, spiritually,” he said. "It just feels so beautiful."