Despite the GOP and President Donald Trump saying otherwise, the American economy ain’t doing so hot. Sadly, the adage that when white America catches a cold, Black people catch the flu is proving true, as Black women are disproportionately unemployed compared to the national average.
According to Black Enterprise, the delayed September jobs report revealed that the unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5%. During that same time period, unemployment only ticked up from 3.2% to 3.4%. The general unemployment rate currently sits at 4.2%, though experts believe both numbers may be higher due to the delayed release of the September data. For reference, the unemployment rate for Black women is only 2.5% away from the general, peak unemployment rate reached during the 2008-09 recession.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley has consistently been sounding the alarm bells about how what’s happening to Black women is a bellwether for the economy at large. Pressley sent a letter to the Federal Reserve, pressing them to do something to address the increase in Black women’s unemployment.
According to AP, Pressley held a roundtable discussion about the issue of Black women’s unemployment. “Everyone is missing out when we’re pushed out of the workforce,” Pressley said during the discussion. “That is something that I worry about now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being deprived of.” She added that when Black women do find work, they usually wind up being “woefully underemployed.”
Pressley and the participants in the roundtable pointed out how the actions taken by the Trump administration this year have contributed to the increase in Black women’s unemployment. Trump’s erratic tariff policy has particularly hurt small business owners. This has affected Black women in particular, as they have quickly become the fastest-growing group of small business owners in recent years.
Source: Black Women’s Unemployment Rate Rising Disproportionately
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