Join us for IWPR’s 2026 Power+ Summit, The Power Grid: Driving Gender Equity Forward, taking place September 28–29 in Detroit, MI.
Together, we will spark bold ideas, share breakthroughs, and shape the future of gender equity.
Year one of the second Trump administration was bad for Black women. Persistent inflation, which hurts Black households more,1 increased the costs of basic necessities,2 and job losses disproportionately pushed Black women—who tend to be the primary breadwinners for their families3—out of a worsening labor market.4 These economic conditions were further exacerbated by this administration’s actions in the past year, including mass federal government layoffs, the dismantling of federal agencies such as the Department of Education, an erratic tariff schedule and rollout, and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.5
The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from January 2026, show that Black women lost 251,000 jobs between January and August of 2025 (Figure 1).6 While this number reflects a downward revision from a higher estimate last year, it still represents a large and unequal decrease in employment for Black women, whose job losses made up more than half (54.7 percent) of job losses for all women in that period. Given that Black women only represented 14.1 percent of the female workforce at the start of 2025, this meant they overwhelmingly bore the brunt of job losses.7
Although Black women regained some ground in the second half of the year, it did not make up for the earlier job losses, with a net loss of 113,000 fewer Black women employed in the US economy in December 2025, compared to January 2025 (Figure 1).
In 2024, more than 40 percent of all Black women worked in either professional or service occupations, including health care workers and technicians, educators, social workers, and counselors.8 The occupations in which most Black women work are more vulnerable to a worsening economy, disruptions from increased artificial intelligence (AI) penetration, and targeted attacks by the Trump administration.9 Furthermore, even within occupation groups, Black women often work in lower-paid and less secure jobs, making them more susceptible to layoffs when the sector starts shrinking.110 Additionally, intersecting race- and gender-based discrimination, particularly in the face of attacks on DEI practices, places Black women at greater risk of worse labor market outcomes than other workers.11
Therefore, it is unsurprising that even when all women lost jobs in professional and service occupations in 2025, Black women lost disproportionately more jobs (Figure 2). In fact, proportional to their employment in these jobs in January 2025, Black women lost more than three times as many jobs as all women in professional and service occupations between February and December 2025. In contrast, men gained jobs in both these sectors.
Although Black women are overrepresented in federal government jobs, only a small proportion of all employed Black women—5.1 percent—work in these roles.12 Therefore, the federal government terminations likely play only a small part in explaining the overall scale of job losses experienced by Black women in 2025. However, Black women lost more than 30 percent of their employment in federal government jobs between January and December 2025, compared to smaller losses of 11.6 percent for all women and 8.1 percent for all men.13 This highlights that even when sectors shrink across the board, Black women experience the biggest job losses.
Black women’s experiences in the US labor market provide a preview of what is to come for everyone. To help mitigate the disparate impact of labor market downturns on Black women, policymakers should support policies that empower workers, promote safe and equitable workplaces, and improve working conditions overall.
Stay tuned for more research on key topics affecting Black women in the workforce from IWPR’s Advancing Black Women in Leadership initiative.
To learn more about IWPR’s federal policy recommendations on Equal Pay and Better Workplaces, go to iwpr.org/federalpolicyagenda/. For additional information on state policy solutions, visit statepolicyactionlab.org/.
This quick figure was prepared by Dr. Mrinmoyee Chatterjee and Dr. Jennifer Turner, with fact-checking by Dr. Martha Susana Jaimes and Pamela Alvarado, and feedback on previous drafts from Dr. Kate Bahn and Jesseca Boyer. Thank you to our key funders for their generous support of IWPR’s core research and flagship products.