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The U.S. job market remains turbulent for Black women, who continue to face disproportionately high unemployment rates. According to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released June 6, the unemployment rate for Black women ages 20 and over rose to 6.2% in May, up slightly from 6.1% in April. This figure outpaced the national average of 4.2% and even exceeded the unemployment rate for Black men, which stood at 5.6% last month.
By contrast, the unemployment rate for white women held steady at 3.3%, maintaining a stable trend seen throughout the spring.
Notably, the upward unemployment trend for Black women has continued steadily since May 2024, when the rate climbed to an alarming 5.3%. So what’s driving the surge in joblessness for Black women? Experts point to a sharp decline in federal employment opportunities, a sector where Black women have historically had stronger representation. Over the past year, the share of Black women working in the federal government has plummeted by nearly 33%, according to Bloomberg.
Much of this drop is being attributed to the controversial “workforce optimization initiative” spearheaded by former President Donald Trump and the quasi-government agency DOGE, led by Elon Musk. Launched in February, the initiative encouraged buyouts for roughly 75,000 federal employees, followed by sweeping layoffs across multiple federal departments, including the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security.
According to Pew Research’s 2024 data, Black workers make up 18.6% of the federal workforce, and Black women comprise a notable portion. In fact, as of FY 2020, African American women accounted for nearly 12% of the civilian federal workforce. However, they represented a disproportionately high share of employees at the agencies targeted for cuts, such as USAID, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education, where Black women make up 28% of the workforce, per ProPublica.
Source: laflor
DEI Rollbacks Added Fuel To The Fire
These layoffs are only part of the story. Advocates say the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs has created additional barriers to employment—and retention—for Black women.
A class-action lawsuit filed in March with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board claims that hundreds of Black women were unjustly terminated from federal positions, according to a June 4 ProPublica report. Backed by the ACLU’s Washington office, the suit argues that the administration violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which bans employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin—by enforcing the Trump-era rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Plaintiffs say the rollback disproportionately harmed Black women in the federal workforce, destroying what was once a stable path of employment for many.
Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, echoed these sentiments during a recent interview with Bloomberg, adding that the tariff war and lack of funding for small businesses that primarily hire Black women have added to the complex storm.
“The layoffs at the federal level where Black people are more represented, the impacts of the tariffs, particularly on small businesses that hire Black women, and the overall use of DEI as a slur, which may be contributing to a lack of hiring of Black women, all of these factors are probably at play,” Perry said.
The Road Ahead
As federal employment contracts and DEI programs are dismantled, Black women—already underrepresented in private-sector leadership and overrepresented in low-wage jobs—are finding fewer paths to economic stability. Advocates say that reversing this trend will require both legal accountability and a renewed commitment to equitable hiring practices at all levels of government.
In the meantime, the data paints a stark picture. For Black women in the U.S., the road to stable employment is becoming increasingly steep and uncertain.
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