‘There is real damage being done': Rising Black unemployment could signal deeper economic woes

Boston Globe

7 hours ago

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As tariffs and mass deportations start to soften the economy, Black and Latino workers are vulnerable because they have lower rates of educational attainment and higher shares of low-wage and temporary jobs that are often the first to go, economists note.
Black workers make up a
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White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers
said Black and Latino unemployment hit then-record lows during President Trump's first term — though the Latino rate dropped to this level again, and the Black rate went lower, when President
Biden was in office, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Rising Black unemployment is a result of the immigration surge during the Biden administration, she said.
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'Deportation efforts have opened up jobs previously held by illegal immigrants, and American-born workers have accounted for all job gains since the president took office in January,' she said in a statement Thursday. 'President Trump is implementing the same America First economic agenda that delivered historic job and wage growth in his first term.'
Massachusetts has typically weathered economic downturns better than the country as a whole because its large education, health care, and life sciences industries have remained strong, said Mark Melnik, director of economic and policy research at the UMass Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But stagnant labor force growth in recent years and the pullback of federal grants have put the state in a more vulnerable position. And retail and hospitality almost always get 'whacked' during economic downturns, he said, because they rely on discretionary consumer spending — sectors that have more Black, brown, and female workers.
'That is a structural problem in the economy that will persist,' Melnik said.
Data volatility is more common among smaller demographic groups because of the reduced sample size in monthly jobs reports, he noted. But there seems to be something 'recessiony' brewing.
Black workers make up 18 percent of the federal workforce, compared to the 12 percent of jobs in the US labor force overall,
according to the
More than
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Many of the people who lost their government jobs were probationary employees, who tend to be younger workers. And because the younger population is more diverse than the United States as a whole, it's likely that a sizable share of those who were let go were people of color, noted Max Stier, chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington nonprofit focused on improving government.
The Office of Personnel Management also recently removed demographic workforce data from its website, Stier said, which makes it difficult to determine if a disproportionate number of certain groups of people are being fired.
Black women in particular are often the 'canary in the coal mine' because they've historically had the highest rate of labor force participation among women, said Katica Roy, chief executive of Pipeline, a Denver company that uses artificial intelligence to boost financial performance by closing equity gaps in the workforce.
'When cracks appear in the job market, they feel them first,' she said.
Nearly
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Since
'They can't not work,' Roy said, 'and our economy can't afford to lose them.'
At the Department of Education, Black employees made up
Webb-Prather, a lawyer and self-described 'cornerstone' of her family, had moved back to her impoverished hometown of East Cleveland last fall for the federal job — and to help take care of relatives with medical problems. She lives with her mother in a house riddled with leaks and mold and recently picked up a pizza to feed a group of neighborhood children who told her they'd only had cereal to eat that day.
Webb-Prather, 36, is still being paid, but she doesn't know for how long.
'This money ain't just for me,' said Webb-Prather, who is Black. 'I'm feeding my family and I'm feeding the family ... across the street.'
The backlash against DEI, which began before Trump was reelected and has been greatly exacerbated by his policies, is also having an impact, said Su Joun, principal of the Diversity@Workplace Consulting Group in Burlington. Professionals of color, who often reach out to her for career guidance, are being laid off at a higher rate than in the past, she said, which may be due to organizations paying less attention to their workforce demographics.
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According to a July survey of 965 business leaders by the job website resume.org,
'The desire to have good diversity numbers, maybe that pressure is eliminated,' Joun said. 'Without intervention, inequitable networks and bias often leave people of color out of the job market.'
Leaders of color who were hired or promoted in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in 2020 also haven't been around long enough to generate enough widespread support, or 'stickiness,' within the organization to save their jobs, Joun said, and may also be vulnerable to being replaced.
Nonprofits, many of which employ as well as support people of color, are being hit by federal funding cutbacks, which could reduce opportunities on both fronts for Black and Latino workers.
Even companies that aren't abandoning their DEI efforts are trying to understand how the steady stream of changes could affect them, which slows down the process of creating more equitable workforces, said Pratt Wiley, president of The Partnership, a Boston organization dedicated to developing professionals of color.
'There is real damage being done,' he said. 'This moment may pass, but it may be incredibly painful and have a lasting effect.'
This story was produced by the Globe's
team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter
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Katie Johnston can be reached at