More Than 106,000 Black Women Lost Jobs Last Month

By Stacy M Brown, Washington Informer

Black women experienced the steepest job loss of any demographic group in April, shedding 106,000 jobs, according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The April report shows a significant setback for Black women in the labor market, even as the U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs and the national unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%.

The number of employed Black women dropped from 10.325 million in March to 10.219 million in April. Their unemployment rate jumped from 5.1% to 6.1%, the largest month-to-month increase among all racial and gender groups.

Among other findings, the labor force participation rate for Black women edged to 61.2%, indicating a loss in employment and a possible decline in overall workforce engagement. The unemployment rate for white women remained unchanged at 3.3%. Hispanic women’s unemployment also held at 4.6%. Women in other groups generally do not face the dual barriers of racial and gender discrimination that Black women contend with, a factor in the jobless rate gap.

The overall Black unemployment rate rose to 6.3% in April, up from 6.2% in March, marking the third straight monthly increase and the highest rate since January. In contrast, Black men saw a gain in employment, dropping their jobless rate from 6.1% to 5.6%. 

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Economist William Michael Cunningham, owner of Creative Investment Research, told Black Enterprise that the number of unemployed Black Americans increased by 29,000 in April, reaching nearly 1.4 million. At the same time, the total Black labor force declined by 7,000.

Read on to see how Cunningham connects these job losses to DEI rollbacks.