The Black unemployment rate is the highest it’s been since the pandemic, and many economists are worried that this is an indicator that the economy may be heading toward a recession.
Despite President Trump firing the Bureau of Labor and Statistics director, Erika McEntarfer, the dismal report was still released showing that the unemployment rate among Black Americans hit 7.5% in August, the highest unemployment rate amongst Blacks since October 2021, and more than double that of white workers.
“Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for Black men, at 7.1%, was slightly higher than the 6.7% unemployment rate seen for Black women in August, though Black women have seen bigger employment losses since the first quarter of this year. (Black teens of both sexes, ages 16-19, had an unemployment rate of 24.8%.), Yahoo Finance reports.
This is not beneficial for the country’s overall economic health
“What we find typically is that the unemployment rates that you see for the young, for Blacks — and particularly Black males — are a telltale sign of the direction of the economy and what we can expect to see hit overall in a few months,” Gary Hoover, an economist at Tulane University, told Yahoo Finance.
The country’s broader unemployment rate had remained between 4% and 4.2% since May 2024, but broke out of that range in August, rising to 4.3%. The disappointing jobs report for the month revealed that the U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs—well short of the 75,000 economists had expected.
Major job loss for Black workers happened towards the beginning of Trump’s term when Tesla CEO Elon Musk headed the Trump administration-created “Department of Government Efficiency,” which took an axe to the federal workforce, which was made up of nearly 19% Black workers. Since Trump took office, the federal government has cut some 97,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.
Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told Yahoo Finance that Black unemployment is a “canary in the coal mine.” He added, “If it’s steadily starting to go up, that portends that the economy might be heading toward a downturn.”
