Black unemployment rose from 6 percent in August to 7 percent in September, even as the overall U.S. Unemployment rate changed little at 4. 2 percent. The rate was nearly twice the 3. 6 percent recorded for white workers and was the highest among the major racial groups tracked in the monthly data.
The increase followed a sharp decline from more than 8 percent in November 2025 to 6 percent in August. Black workers’ employment nevertheless rose by about 110,000 in September, illustrating why economists caution that a single month’s household-survey estimate can be volatile. The number of long-term unemployed Americans remained near 1. 9 million, or 27. 1 percent of all unemployed people, while payroll employment increased by only 29,000 nationwide.
The deterioration has been especially pronounced for Black women. Employment among Black women age 20 and older has fallen to about 10. 3 million from roughly 10. 7 million in 2023. Health care, nursing and social assistance have held up better than many other fields, but professional and business services have been weaker for Black women even as Black men gained more than 100,000 jobs in that sector.
For some workers, the pressure has extended beyond the official unemployment figures. Gena Pemberton, who held senior accounting, operations and human-resources roles and later served as chief inclusion and impact officer at Omnicom Health, lost that position in July 2025. After months without full-time work and dozens of applications each week, she has begun considering jobs with lower titles and pay and expects to draw on her earlier financial-analysis experience.
Black professionals have faced the contraction of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion roles, reductions in federal employment, and a broader slowdown in white-collar hiring. Vina Morris of the National Black MBA Association’s New York chapter said corporate partnerships and funding had declined. She also said artificial-intelligence screening systems had complicated applications while informal referrals and personal networks had regained influence, disadvantaging candidates who are less connected to those circles.
Businesses serving corporate clients have felt the same pullback. Melinda Emerson said her sales had dropped by half since 2023 and that clients were offering fees barely above operating costs as budgets were cut. She attributed most of the decline to the political backlash against diversity programs.
Economists cited in the reporting said there was little evidence for that claim.