A new report by Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., has analyzed the labor market changes among Black women in the United States during 2025, a year in which the national unemployment rate climbed to its highest point in four years, job growth slowed, and federal employment plummeted.
In 2025, Black women’s employment rate fell by 1.4 percentage points to 55.7 percent, well below its peak of 57.8 percent in 2023. In comparison, Black men and White women’s decline was no more than 0.5 percentage points each, while employment rose slightly for Hispanic women and Asian American and Pacific Islander women in 2025. Black women also experienced a decline in their labor force participation rate, decreasing from 60.6 percent in 2024 to 59.7 percent in 2025, and an increase in their unemployment rate, rising from 5.8 percent to 6.7 percent.
Among all Black women, those with a college education experienced the largest declines in employment and labor force participation rates. For Black women with a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education, there was a 3.5 percent decline in employment rate, compared to a 0.5 percent decline for Black women with a high school diploma, a 1.4 percent decline for Black women who have completed some college, and a 0.3 percent decline for Black women with an advanced degree.
Black women’s employment losses were largely due to massive federal layoffs and buyouts over the past year. While Black women saw a net increase in private-sector employment in 2025, there were net losses in six of the 12 major private-sector services, including manufacturing, financial activities, and professional and business services.
Dr. Wilson currently serves as director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy. She previously served as vice president for research at the National Urban League. Dr. Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in Virginia and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
