By comparison, the unemployment rate among white women hovered at 2.9% as labor force participation rate held steady at 57.1%. Hispanic women saw unemployment tick down to 4.5% as labor force participation hovered at 59.6%.
“It’s hard to see from this data what is exactly behind it, but black women are withdrawing from employment much more than white women,” said Ariane Hegewisch, senior research fellow at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
The move may signal more withdrawals from the job market and be a contributor to the downtick in the unemployment rate within the group, she said.
