As Black women face unemployment challenges, a roundtable of policymakers searches for solutions

By MATT BROWN Associated Press In a packed room at library in a downtown Boston Rep Ayanna Pressley posed a blunt question Why are Black women who have specific of the highest labor force participation rates in the country now seeing their unemployment rise faster than the bulk other groups The replies Monday from policymakers academics business owners and district organizers laid out how economic headwinds facing Black women may indicate a troubling shift for the market at large The unemployment rate for Black women increased from to between August and September this year the majority of new month for available content because of the federal establishment shutdown That compares with a to increase for white women over the same period And it extended a year-long trend of the Black women s unemployment rate increasing at a time of broad economic uncertainty Countless roundtable attendees view those numbers as both an affront and a warning about the uneven pressures on Black women Everyone is missing out when we re pushed out of the workforce mentioned Pressley a progressive Democrat That is something that I worry about now that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we re being deprived of And when Black women do have work she announced they tend to be woefully underemployed U S Rep Ayanna Pressley D-Mass addresses a gathering at a roundtable meeting Monday Nov in Boston AP Photo Charles Krupa U S Rep Ayanna Pressley D-Mass gestures while addressing a gathering at a roundtable meeting Monday Nov in Boston AP Photo Charles Krupa U S Rep Ayanna Pressley D-Mass gestures while addressing a gathering at a roundtable meeting Monday Nov in Boston AP Photo Charles Krupa U S Rep Ayanna Pressley D-Mass right greets guests while arriving for a roundtable meeting Monday Nov in Boston AP Photo Charles Krupa Show Caption of U S Rep Ayanna Pressley D-Mass addresses a gathering at a roundtable meeting Monday Nov in Boston AP Photo Charles Krupa Expand Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female demographic in according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet their unemployment rate remains higher than other demographics of women Historically their unemployment rate has trended slightly above the national average widening during periods of slowed economic rise or recession Black Americans are overrepresented in industries like retail physical condition and social services and authorities administration according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that is our society explained Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman a PhD candidate in citizens agenda and economics at the Harvard Kennedy School She pointed to April as the month when Black women s unemployment began to diverge more sharply from other groups A program agenda that ignores the causes she explained could harm the broader financial sector Related Articles Consumer confidence slides as Americans grow wary of high costs and sluggish job gains Preponderance US stocks rise but Nvidia s drop keeps the domain in check Is mobile banking safe How to literally protect your money US retail sales rose slightly in September adding to months of big gains White House floats Obamacare subsidy plan Roundtable participants cited various long-standing structural inequities but attributed majority of the latest divergence to new federal actions They blamed the Trump administration s downsizing of the Minority Business Enhancement Agency and the cancellation of particular federal contracts with non-profits and small businesses saying those actions disproportionately impacted Black women Others explained tariff policies and mass federal layoffs also contributed to the strain The administration s opposition to diversity equity and inclusion initiatives was repeatedly mentioned by participants as a cause for a more hostile milieu for Black women to find employment customers or ruling body contracting There is no concrete evidence on how a multitude of Black federal workers were laid off fired or otherwise dismissed as part of President Donald Trump s sweeping cuts through the federal authorities The attendees discussed a wide range of feasible solutions to the unemployment rate for Black women including using state budgets to bolster business rise for Black women expanding microloans to different communities increasing leadership materials for contracting requiring greater transparency on corporate hiring practices and encouraging state and federal officers to enforce anti-discrimination policies I feel like I was just at church disclosed Ruthzee Louijeune the Boston City Council president as the meeting wrapped up She encouraged attendees to keep up their efforts and she defended DEI policies as essential to a healthy workforce and political system Without broad-based efforts the Democrat stated the country s business and political leadership would be abnormal and weakened Any space that does not look like our country and like our cities is not normal she declared and not the city or country we are trying to build