The 2025 labor market can best be characterized as faltering. The national unemployment rate climbed to its highest point in four years, job growth slowed dramatically, and federal employment fell by a staggering 277,000. Black women bore the brunt of the economic slowdown, suffering far greater employment losses than other groups of women or Black men. Notably, some of the largest losses among Black women were college graduates and public-sector workers, according to our new analysis.

In 2025, Black women’s employment rate fell by 1.4 percentage points to 55.7%. This is one of the sharpest one-year declines in the last 25 years (see Figure A). The decline among Black men and white women was no more than 0.5 percentage points each while employment rose slightly for Hispanic (+0.6 percentage points) and AAPI (+0.4 percentage points) women. At 55.7%, Black women’s employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) was well below the most recent peak of 57.8% in 2023, reflecting employment losses that started in 2024 and accelerated in 2025. These estimates are also available in EPI’s State of Working America Data Library.

The decline in Black women’s employment over the last year included exits from the labor force and rising unemployment among remaining jobseekers. Their labor force participation rate dropped from 60.6% in 2024 to 59.7% in 2025 as the unemployment rate rose from 5.8% to 6.7%.

A closer look reveals that college-educated Black women experienced the greatest drop in employment and labor force participation rates. As shown in Figure B, the EPOP for Black women with bachelor’s degrees fell by 3.5 percentage points over the last year—a much larger decline than any other education category, including those who are not college graduates. Similarly, the labor force participation rate declined most for Black women bachelor’s degree holders—down 2.3 percentage points in 2025.

Large employment losses and labor force departures among college graduates were a direct consequence of the Trump administration implementing massive federal layoffs and buyouts over the last year, a sector where nearly half of Black workers have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) microdata further supports this as a driving factor. Figure C presents changes in the number of Black women employed by self-reported sector and industry of employment between 2024 and 2025. Notably, it shows that the overall net loss in employed Black women was driven entirely by public-sector losses, with most job losses in federal government.

While Black women saw a net increase in private-sector employment in 2025—primarily in the growing education and health services industry—there were net losses in six of the 12 major private-sector industries. Among the net losses, 33% occurred in other services, followed by 25% in manufacturing, 21% in financial activities, and 15% in professional and business services. The other services industry includes establishments primarily engaged in repair and maintenance and personal and laundry services, as well as work for private households and religious, grantmaking, civic, and professional organizations.

To put a finer point on the dominant influence of Black women’s employment losses on rising Black unemployment in 2025, Figure C also shows that Black men reported a net gain in the total number employed. Black men had a much smaller decline in federal government employment and relatively fewer industry-specific private-sector losses.

While this analysis offers more details about the decline in Black women’s employment, the biggest looming question remains unanswered: Why do federal and private-sector employment losses seem so targeted to Black women? Whether those losses are an early indication of more widespread job losses to come—or casualties of anti-equity backlash in action—could become clearer in the months ahead.