America's Job Cuts are Hitting Women of Color the Hardest

Nov 4

Episode 527 | Author: Emilie Aries

Policy changes and corporate initiatives have a massive impact on Black women, and that’s just the tip of the economic iceberg.

As recently as April, we were seeing some positive economic numbers for people of color. The unemployment rate for Black Americans was at 4.7%—the lowest since the data collection began in the 70’s.

In the last four months alone, that rate surged to 7.5%. At the same time, we saw the unemployment rate for white Americans drop slightly to below 4%.

When people of color, and especially Black women, lose ground, it’s a flashing warning sign of systemic cracks. As the livelihood, legacy, and leadership potential of a vital part of the American workforce is slipping away, I want to break down some of that data.

The economic equity downturn

Even before April of this year, there was cause to tentatively celebrate the narrowing of the racial wealth gap. In 2023, the New York Times reported that wages for Black Americans were rising the fastest they had since the 90’s, when they started tracking. Household wealth was at its highest on record.

But that progress has since unravelled, due largely to the industries disproportionately impacted by recent cuts. Jobs in sectors like education, public and professional services, and healthcare—which employ large numbers of Black women—are being slashed. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “black women are uniquely experiencing a decline in employment that isn’t showing up among other groups of women or black men.”

If you listened to episode 526, The Double Tax: What It Really Costs Women of Color to Succeed, with economist and author Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, you know that this is just the beginning. Black women are often the first to feel the effects of an economic downturn that will inevitably impact everyone.

MSNBC reports that in more than 51% of Black households with children, the woman is the primary—and often sole—source of income. The surge in unemployment, then, means not just individuals but families and whole communities are losing their economic footing. Stack on the latest freezing of SNAP benefits, and the effects of this systemic failure are nothing short of devastating.

Calling out the economic issues

Two major economic themes are behind this soaring and inequitable unemployment rate.

Federal workforce layoffs and hiring freezes

The New York Times and the U.S. House Budget Committee confirmed in late September that more than 200,000 federal employees have left because of Trump’s actions. That includes the 55,000 who have been fired due to federal job cuts, which have “fallen disproportionately on Black workers.”

The federal government has long been at the forefront of inclusive hiring and pay transparency practices. This reduction of historic barriers has led to a federal labor force of which Black women make up 12%—that’s almost double their share of the broader workforce. Now, these stable jobs with pensions and healthcare, not to mention more equitable pay, are being shuttered by the thousands. The federal cuts cascade down to local governments as well—again, the “pink collar” jobs often held by Black women are the first to go.

The continuing DEI backlash

I’ve been discussing the attack on DEI for years now, and it’s primed to continue. The Trump administration has penalized private contractors with DEI programming—literally ordering them to stop pursuing racial equity—leading to slashed DEI budgets, a 43% decrease in job postings for DEI positions, ignored equity benchmarks, and scaled-back mentorships, among other impactful changes.

All this, despite the fact that research proves that committing to inclusion leads to attracting and retaining better talent and fueling innovation. Per the New York Times, “the federal backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion practices may be making it more difficult for black workers to get hired in the private sector.”

What to take away from all this

The system is regressing—and fast—to the way it was before. Black women were just starting to rise, but Black Americans are still experiencing an intractable wealth gap.

Brookings reported a harrowing statistic: an analysis of Federal Reserve data found that for every $100 in wealth that white households have, Black households have $15.

There’s no question that policy plays an enormous role in this situation. This gap is baked into how our country was founded and developed, right from the start. When Black women today lose jobs and the Black unemployment rate skyrockets, we deepen an economic wound that is centuries of policy decisions in the making.

What we can do

First and foremost—vote. We have a voice, and we need to use it to advocate for leaders who believe in fair wages, inclusive hiring, pay transparency, and strong social safety nets. Policy caused much of our current situation, and it can help solve it.

Second, support Black-owned businesses. Especially with the holiday season coming up, make a conscious effort to buy from the Black women entrepreneurs in your communities!

And third, use your influence. I know that so many Bossed Up listeners have positions of influence as managers, leaders, or employees with a voice. Do what you can to protect and expand the inclusive practices in your organization.

We talk a lot about using our leadership skills to advocate for ourselves. Now is the time to expand those skills to advocate for the people in your community. Because every time these doors slam shut against an economy that truly works for us all, it gets harder for everyone, everywhere, to open them again.

How is this economy impacting you? If you’re navigating job loss, be sure to check out our free job search resources. Then, share your story and your support in our Courage Community on Facebook or our group on LinkedIn.

Related Links From Today’s Episode:

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for gender and racial equality, every day:

[INTRO MUSIC IN]
EMILIE: Hey, and welcome to the Bossed Up podcast, episode 527. I'm your host, Emilie Aries, the Founder and CEO of Bossed Up.
[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]
And in just four short months, the unemployment rate among black Americans has surged from 6 to 7.5 percent, even as unemployment among white Americans actually fell slightly to 3.7 percent. That's not just an economic statistic. That's a warning sign. And as someone who's built my career trying to help all women rise, I cannot ignore what's happening right now in the job market, especially as it relates to black women's experiences in particular. Because when black women lose ground, it's not just an isolated problem. In many ways, it's like a canary in a coal mine, a sign that something deeper, something systemic is starting to crack. And these aren't just numbers, right? These represent livelihoods, legacies, and leadership potential being stripped away.
So let's start by just breaking down the numbers and look at what's happening according to the latest economic indicators. What's fascinating here is that as recently as April of this year, black unemployment had actually hit a record low at 4.7%. That's the best rate that black Americans have experienced in terms of unemployment since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking this data in 1972. At that time, we were seeing progress that many had never thought would be possible. In fact, the New York Times reported in 2023, just a couple years ago, that that wages among black Americans were rising at their fastest pace since data collection began in the 1990s, and median black household wealth reached the highest level on record.
So what happened? Because all of that progress has quickly unraveled. It finally felt like decades of work to close America's racial wealth gap were finally beginning to pay off. But all that progress has quickly unraveled. The Economic Policy Institute's Valeria Wilson says, quote, “black women are uniquely experiencing a decline in employment that isn't showing up among other groups of women or black men”. And that's partly because of persistent gender segregation across industries where black women are concentrated. In industries like public service, education, professional services, and healthcare roles that have been disproportionately cut in recent months.
And as I just broke down in my last episode, episode 526 with Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, who wrote the book The Double Tax, Black women are often the first to feel the effects of an economic downturn that's coming for all of us. So their rising unemployment is like the flashing red warning light for the broader economy, a very concerning foreshadowing of what could follow in the coming months.
And when black women lose jobs, the ripple effects are devastating, not just for individuals, but for families and for communities. As MSNBC reported, more than 51% of Black households with children are led by breadwinner mothers, many of whom are the sole source of income in their homes. So when these women are pushed out of the workforce, entire families lose their economic footing, housing stability, consumer spending, educational outcomes for children, all of that takes a hit. And all this happening on the backdrop of SNAP benefits and WIC programs being slow slashed due to the government shutdown is devastating. It's a crisis.
So these are not isolated setbacks. All of this is part of a systemic failure. So when you look deeper into the economic indicators to understand why this is happening, there's two major themes that stand out. One is federal workforce layoffs and hiring freezes. According to the New York Times and the U.S. House Budget Committee, as of late September 2025, over 200,000 employees left the federal workforce because of Trump's actions, including about 55,000 that were fired. Those job cuts have, quote, “fallen disproportionately on black workers”, end quote. And for decades, we know that the public sector has served as a lifeline for black women who were historically shut out of opportunity elsewhere in the economy.
But the federal government, in so many ways, was like, on the bleeding edge of inclusive hiring practices and pay transparency through pay bans and all the kinds of best practices that help reduce bias and discrimination and remove historical barriers for women and folks of color, and women of color in particular, to succeed. So it's no surprise that black women make up over 12% of the federal workforce, nearly double their share of the labor force overall. And these jobs were stable, right? They provided pensions, health care, and more equitable pay than many jobs in the private sector.
But that infrastructure is eroding fast. As MSNBC recently reported, a wave of federal downsizing, described as, quote, “efficiency reforms”, end quote, has hit exactly where black women work the most, education, health and community facing roles. And those federal cuts cascade down, hitting local governments, too. So when school budgets shrink or public health departments are gutted, it's often what economists call pink collar jobs held by black women that are the first on the chopping block. So that's the first big trend that's leading to this massive disproportionate impact on black women and women in this economic downturn in the job market.
The second big trend contributing to this that economists suggest or suspect contributes to this, is the whole DEI backlash that we've been covering on this podcast for years now. The New York Times notes that, quote, “the federal backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion practices may be making it more difficult for black workers to get hired in the private sector”, because essentially, the Trump administration has penalized government contractors, of which there are many private sector companies, right, that work with the government, the U.S. government. They're penalizing anyone who has DEI programming, right? And so companies, even in the private sector, are moving away from inclusive hiring practices that were, to be clear, just barely starting to remove structural barriers and historic inequities that was preventing, that were historically preventing, and now are continuing to prevent women and folks of color from getting ahead.
In fact, one of the administration's first moves was to order federal contractors to not pursue racial equity anymore. And in the private sector, we're seeing a similar chilling effect, right? A retreat from DEI. DEI budgets have been slashed or frozen. All these contributions that companies proclaimed they were making in 2020 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement have just never materialized. And even job postings for DEI roles dropped by 43% between 2022 and 2024. We've seen companies quietly scale back on mentorship programs, slow inclusive hiring practices, and deprioritize equity benchmarks, not even publishing them anymore, right? Treating DEI as expendable and not foundational and not baked into management and hiring practices anymore.
But the truth remains that when organizations commit to inclusion, they attract and retain top talent, fuel innovation, and build stronger, more creative and more collaborative teams. So this pullback is not about efficiency. It's about inequality creeping back in through the side door. And it is having a profound negative impact on folks of color across the board, Black Americans in particular, and black women especially.
So here's what this moment demands that we all see clearly. This is not about personal failings. This is about policy choices. After years of work to remove barriers and expand opportunity, black women were just starting to rise. And now the rug is being pulled out from underneath them as our systems regress to how the way things were before, which is, frankly, exactly what a lot of folks voted for. But just to underpin how insufficient all of this was to begin with, I want to reiterate that this is all happening on the backdrop of this intractable wealth gap in America that underpins it all when it comes to, like, household wealth held by black Americans compared to their white counterparts.
A recent Brookings analysis of Federal Reserve Data found that for every $100 in wealth that white households have in America, black households hold just $15, $15. So, for every $100. That is an enormous institutional and historical gap that was baked into the infrastructure of our country and how our country was founded and grown from the very get go. So when black women today lose jobs disproportionately and the black unemployment rate in America skyrockets, this doesn't just slow progress, this deepens a wound, an economic wound that has been centuries in the making baked into the policy choices of these United States of America. This isn't just a story about layoffs in 2025. It's a story about what happens when we treat equality as optional, when we forget that every policy decision either builds or breaks a bridge to opportunity.
So what can we all do with this information? One, vote. Vote and advocate for leaders who believe in fair wages, inclusive hiring, pay, transparency and strong social safety nets. Policy created this problem and policy can do more to help solve for it. Two, support Black owned businesses now more than ever. There's a reason why black women are the fastest growing population of entrepreneurs in this country. Many of them have to become entrepreneurs by necessity. So support black owned small businesses, especially as the holiday season is on the horizon.
And number three, if you hold any power influence in your organization, which as a Bossed Up listener, you absolutely should and can and will if you keep listening to this podcast, whether you're a manager, an employee, a leader, or just someone with influence, do everything you can to protect and expand inclusive hiring and mentorship programs as the foundations of good management practices that they are. Use your influence to make sure opportunity doesn't contract on your watch. And if you're an ally, don't just post about solidarity, practice it. Sponsor a black woman in your field, pay her fairly, invite her to the table, support her in her job search, champion those by being a super connector between the talented black women and black Americans who are disproportionately unemployed right now and the organizations that could benefit from their talents.
We know that progress is fragile and we're watching it erode before our very eyes. And it is depressing. And I am full of despair every single day when I listen to the news or, god forbid, read the newspaper. But leadership in these kinds of moments, it's not just about climbing ladders and looking out for yourself and getting yours and advocating for all that you need. It's about holding the door open when the system starts slamming it shut behind you. This moment calls for courage. It calls for collective action and it calls for a recommitment to building an economy that truly works for all women. Because when Black women thrive, we all do.
As always, the conversation continues after the episode in the Bossed Up Courage Community on Facebook and in the Bossed Up LinkedIn Group. I want to hear from you. Are you navigating job loss yourself? I've got tons of free job search resources we'll link you to and connect you with. And I want to encourage you to check out our TAKE ACTION page, which is all about systemic solutions for gender inequality and inequity and what you can do to be an advocate every day in your community and in your workplace. And if you found today's podcast enlightening and informative, share it with the people in your world who you know would benefit from hearing it. Until next time, let's keep bossin’ in pursuit of our purpose. And as the motto goes, that was set way back in 1896 by America's first Black women's groups. Let's keep lifting as we climb.
[OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]