Black Unemployment Rate Surges, Signaling Broader Economic Troubles
By Jovonne Ledet
August 6, 2025
A recent spike in Black unemployment may be an early indicator of broader economic troubles, according to economists.
According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate for Black Americans climbed to 7.2 percent in July, which is up from the 6.8 percent in June and the 6.3 percent from a year ago. The Black unemployment rate is also significantly higher than the national average, which lies at 4.2 percent. For Black women, unemployment has increased from 5.5 percent to 6.3 percent over the past year.
“This is the canary in the coal mine,” Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said, per USA Today. “The Black unemployment rate is always the first to go up.”
Black unemployment has surged to 7.2% in July 2025 — the highest it’s been since the pandemic-era rate of 7.6% in October 2021, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor. pic.twitter.com/9bXQljG5Fl
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 6, 2025
Contributing factors to the trend include federal job cuts, which disproportionately affected Black workers. In agencies like the Department of Education and Health and Human Services, Black employees represent over 20 percent of the workforce. Significant increases in Black unemployment are also occurring in states like South Carolina and Michigan, where the rate has reached 10 percent, nearly double the state's overall.
Experts have also cited business uncertainty around trade policy, the rise of AI, and political efforts to roll back DEI programs as other potential factors contributing to the spike in Black unemployment.
“There’s an antagonistic posture against the Black workforce,” Andre Perry of the Brookings Institution said.
Economists are warning that the current pattern of Black unemployment looks like "an emerging trend" of the overall labor market slowing down. Ajilore noted that more than 300,000 Black women lost jobs in the first half of 2025. These types of shifts often precede a wider economic downturn, Ajilore added.
“The labor market is slowing down,” she said. “Black labor indicators told us this story was coming.”
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