{"id":205624,"date":"2025-09-06T18:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/205624\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T18:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:26:14","slug":"black-unemployment-rises-for-second-straight-month-reaching-highest-level-since-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/205624\/","title":{"rendered":"Black unemployment rises for second straight month, reaching highest level since pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Black unemployment rate spiked for another consecutive month, according to the latest report<\/a> from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In August, the number of jobless Black Americans climbed to 7.5%, up from 7.2% in July.<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate for Black Americans is now at its highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2021, and the highest number in eight years when excluding job losses as a result of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack unemployment is now at a rate that would represent a crisis if it were the overall unemployment rate,\u201d Angela Hanks, Chief of Policy Programs at The Century Foundation and former Department of Labor official, told theGrio. <\/p>\n

\u201cBlack unemployment is often routinely double white unemployment, but the gap has been narrowing in recent years following the pandemic, as unemployment fell for all workers,\u201d said Hanks, who added, \u201cThis jobs report concerningly shows that gap is widening, with rising Black unemployment disproportionately\u00a0driving that gap.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The national unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.3% as a result of only 22,000 new jobs added to the job market. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, the proof is in the numbers: Donald Trump is the worst president for workers we\u2019ve seen in generations,\u201d said Julie Su, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, in a public statement. \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s War on Workers may be playing well with his billionaire buddies, but it\u2019s leaving everyone else less stable, less secure, and poorer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of the president\u2019s economic policies have blamed the increasing unemployment rates on his global tariffs and cuts to the federal workforce, among other actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump told Black Americans that immigrants were a threat to their jobs. The truth is, it\u2019s Trump\u2019s own policies that are crushing opportunity,\u201d said Brandon Weathersby, a spokesperson for the Democratic research firm, American Bridge 21st Century. \u201cFamilies everywhere are struggling, and no one is feeling that failure more than Black workers, especially Black women, who continue to bear the brunt of his broken promises. Trump promised prosperity, but what he delivered is an economy rigged against the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic strategist Joel Payne told theGrio, \u201cThe Trump economy thus far and his economic agenda say, at a minimum, that Black workers are not a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne said he is particularly concerned about the impact of the Trump economy on Black women, 300,000 of whom have lost their jobs<\/a> since President Trump entered office for a second term. Black women have also been documented as disproportionately harmed by Trump\u2019s massive cuts to the federal workforce, which included jobs related to or perceived to be diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). <\/p>\n

\"FederalWASHINGTON, DC \u2013 JULY 11: Recently laid off U.S. State Department employees carry boxes as they walk out of the Harry S. Truman Federal Building on July 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat builds on, I think, over half a million Black women who have not returned to the workforce since the pandemic,\u201d noted Payne.<\/p>\n

The Democratic insider said the current struggles for Black workers are \u201csomewhat predictable,\u201d explaining, \u201c[2024 Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President] Kamala Harris talked about this in her campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats talked about what Donald Trump was going to do. He was pretty transparent when caught on the hot mic a couple of times about who he was building this economy for,\u201d said Payne, referring to Trump\u2019s campaign promise to wealthy donors that he would make them \u201crich as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Democratic strategist added, \u201cHe wasn\u2019t building this economy for Black workers, and I think we\u2019re seeing the result of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Payne said the only way to \u201cpush back\u201d on the economic reality for Black workers and others impacted by the downward economic trends is to ensure Democrats win back Congress in the 2026 election to \u201cput a check on Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks of The Century Foundation said the latest jobs report is not the result of a \u201ctypical ebb and flow of economic cycles,\u201d but rather a \u201cdirect result of the President\u2019s agenda of raising prices and destroying jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also warned that Trump\u2019s \u201cOne, Big, Beautiful Bill\u201d law, which provides massive tax cuts for wealthy Americans and cuts funding to health care and social assistance programs, will make several industries \u201cdeeply vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black unemployment rate spiked for another consecutive month, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":205625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[112929,64,79,4352,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-205624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-black-unemployment","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-trump-administration","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115158763711315487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}