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The Black unemployment rate has jumped from six percent to 7.5 percent over the past four months, while white unemployment has moved down to 3.7 percent. As The New York Times reports, the White House’s recent economic decisions have disproportionately harmed Black workers.
Joint Center President Dedrick Asante-Muhammad expressed concern in the article, stating that he “was hoping that the commitment to investing in America, so that a broader set of Americans were actually receiving benefits in terms of low unemployment and higher wages, would continue.”
He also criticized large businesses that pledged support for Black workers in 2020 but have since pulled back.
A hiring freeze and over 200,000 layoffs in the federal workforce — worsened by the government shutdown — have also disproportionately impacted Black workers.
Economic conditions worsened in 2024 after pandemic-era subsidies expired. Hiring slowed, and rising prices hit low-income earners hardest. Black households were the only racial group last year to see both a drop in median income and a rise in the poverty rate, according to Census Bureau data.
As reported by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the only industries that consistently added jobs this year were the healthcare and hospitality industries.
For Black women, nearly four out of 10 are employed in the former, which has become one of the only pathways to stable and high-paying employment.
Two out of five Black men work in the production and logistics sectors, but these industries have lost almost 100,000 jobs as companies scale back hiring.
