In a crowded library room in downtown Boston, Rep. Ayanna Pressley posed a straightforward question: Why are black women, who have one of the highest labor force participation rates in the country, now seeing unemployment rise faster than most other groups?
Responses received Monday from policymakers, academics, business owners and community organizers show how the economic barriers facing Black women may indicate a troubling shift in the economy. economy generally.
unemployment rate for black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5% between August and September this year, the most recent month available, due to federal government shutdown.
By comparison, the rate among white women increased by 3.2% to 3.4%. for the same period. And it extended a year-long trend of rising unemployment rates among black women during widespread economic uncertainty.
Many roundtable participants view these numbers as an insult and a warning about the unequal pressures on black women.
“Everybody misses out when we get pushed out of the workforce,” said Pressley, a progressive Democrat. “What worries me now is that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we have been deprived of.”
And when black women have jobs, she says, they tend to be “woefully underemployed.”
Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female population in 2024, according to the study. Bureau of Labor Statisticshowever, their unemployment rates remain higher than other demographic groups of women.
Historically, their unemployment rates have been slightly higher than the national average, increasing during periods of economic slowdown or recession. Black Americans are overrepresented in industries such as retail, health care and human services, and government, according to the study. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 Study..
“Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that is our society,” said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a PhD candidate in public policy and economics at the Harvard Kennedy School.
She pointed to April as the month when unemployment among black women began to diverge more sharply from other groups. A policy agenda that ignores the causes could harm the overall economy, she said.
Roundtable participants cited many long-standing structural inequalities but attributed much of the recent disparity to recent actions by the federal government. They blamed the Trump administration for staff cuts. Minority Business Development Agency And cancellation of certain federal contracts with nonprofits and small businesses, saying the actions disproportionately impacted black women. Others said tariff policies and massive federal layoffs also contributed to the tension.
The administration's opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives was repeatedly cited by participants as a reason for creating a more hostile environment for Black women when seeking jobs, clients, or government contracts.
There is no specific data on how many Black federal employees have been furloughed, furloughed or otherwise laid off as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts across the federal government.
Participants discussed a wide range of potential solutions to Black women's unemployment rates, including using government budgets to support Black women's business development, expanding microloans to diverse communities, increasing government resources for contracting, demanding greater transparency in corporate hiring practices, and encouraging state and federal officials to enforce anti-discrimination policies.
“I feel like I was just in church,” said Ruthzi Luijen, president of the Boston City Council, after the meeting ended. She encouraged participants to continue their efforts and defended DEI policies as an important part of a healthy workforce and political system. Without a large-scale effort, the Democrat said, the country's business and political leadership would be “abnormal” and weakened.
“Any space that doesn’t look like our country and our cities is not normal,” she said, “and not the city or country that we are trying to build.”
