In a crowded room at the library in downtown Boston, the representative said. Ayanna Pressley Ask a straight question: Why are Black women, who have some of the highest labor force participation rates in the country, seeing their unemployment rates rise faster than most other groups?
Responses Monday from policymakers, academics, business owners and community organizers illustrated how the economic headwinds facing Black women could signal a troubling shift in women’s rights. Economy in general.
the Unemployment rate for black women Growth rates rose from 6.7% to 7.5% between August and September of this year, the most recent month for data available due to… Federal government shutdown.
This compares to an increase of 3.2% to 3.4% for white women During the same period. This has extended a year-long trend of increasing the unemployment rate among black women at a time Widespread economic uncertainty.
Many roundtable attendees view these numbers as both an insult and a warning about the unequal pressures on Black women.
“Everyone loses out when we get pushed out of the workforce,” said Pressley, a progressive Democrat. “That’s the thing that worries me now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being denied.”
And when black women do have work, she said, they tend to be “woefully underemployed.”
Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female demographic in 2024, according to Bureau of Labor StatisticsHowever, their unemployment rate remains higher than other demographics of women.
Historically, their unemployment rate has been slightly higher than the national average, and has widened during periods of slow economic growth or recessions. Black Americans are overrepresented in industries such as retail, health and social services and government administration, according to A.J Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 Survey.
“Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that represents our community,” said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a doctoral student in public policy and economics at Harvard Kennedy School.
She pointed to April as the month when unemployment among Black women began to diverge more sharply from other groups. She said a policy agenda that ignores the causes could harm the broader economy.
Roundtable participants pointed to many long-standing structural inequalities, but attributed most recent differences to recent federal actions. They blamed the Trump administration’s downsizing of the company Minority Business Development Agency and Cancel some federal contracts With nonprofits and small businesses, saying those measures disproportionately affected Black women. Others said tariff policies and mass layoffs of federal workers also contributed to the pressure.
Participants repeatedly cited the administration’s opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as a reason for a more hostile environment for Black women to find work, clients, or government contracts.
There is no specific data on how many Black federal workers have been laid off, fired or otherwise fired as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal government.
Attendees discussed a wide range of potential solutions to the unemployment rate among Black women, including using state budgets to promote business development for Black women, expanding microloans to diverse communities, increasing government resources for contracting, requiring greater transparency about companies’ hiring practices and encouraging state and federal officials to enforce anti-discrimination policies.
“I feel like I was just in church,” Boston City Council President Ruthsay Luigon said as the meeting ended. She encouraged attendees to continue their efforts, and defended DEI policies as essential to a healthy workforce and political system. The Democrat said that without widespread efforts, the country’s business and political leadership will be “unnatural” and weak.
“Any space that does not resemble our country and our cities is not normal, and is not the city or country we are trying to build,” she said.