As Black women face unemployment challenges, a roundtable of policymakers searches for solutions

In a packed room at library in a downtown Boston, Rep. Ayanna Pressley posed a blunt question: Why are Black women, who have some of the highest labor force participation rates in the country, now seeing their unemployment rise faster than most other groups?

The replies Monday from policymakers, academics, business owners and community organizers laid out how economic headwinds facing Black women may indicate a troubling shift for the economy at large.

The unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5% between August and September this year, the most recent month for available data because of the federal government shutdown.

That compares with a 3.2% to 3.4% increase for white women over the same period. And it extended a year-long trend of the Black women's unemployment rate increasing at a time of broad economic uncertainty.

Many roundtable attendees view those numbers as both an affront and a warning about the uneven pressures on Black women.

“Everyone is missing out when we’re pushed out of the workforce,” said Pressley, a progressive Democrat. “That is something that I worry about now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being deprived of.”

And when Black women do have work, she said they tend to be “woefully underemployed.”

Black women had the highest labor force participation rate of any female demographic in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet their unemployment rate remains higher than other demographics of women.

Historically, their unemployment rate has trended slightly above the national average, widening during periods of slowed economic growth or recession. Black Americans are overrepresented in industries like retail, health and social services, and government administration, according to a 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey.

“Black women are at the center of the Venn diagram that is our society,” said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a PhD candidate in public policy and economics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

She pointed to April as the month when Black women’s unemployment began to diverge more sharply from other groups. A policy agenda that ignores the causes, she said, could harm the broader economy.

Roundtable participants cited many long-standing structural inequities but attributed most of the latest divergence to recent federal actions. They blamed the Trump administration's downsizing of the Minority Business Development Agency and the cancellation of some federal contracts with non-profits and small businesses, saying those actions disproportionately impacted Black women. Others said tariff policies and mass federal layoffs also contributed to the strain.

The administration's opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives was repeatedly mentioned by participants as a cause for a more hostile environment for Black women to find employment, customers or government contracting.

There is no concrete data on how many Black federal workers were laid off, fired or otherwise dismissed as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts through the federal government.

The attendees discussed a wide range of potential solutions to the unemployment rate for Black women, including using state budgets to bolster business development for Black women, expanding microloans to different communities, increasing government resources for contracting, requiring greater transparency on corporate hiring practices and encouraging state and federal officials to enforce anti-discrimination policies.

“I feel like I was just at church,” said Ruthzee Louijeune, the Boston City Council president, as the meeting wrapped up. She encouraged attendees to keep up their efforts, and she defended DEI policies as essential to a healthy workforce and political system. Without broad-based efforts, the Democrat said, the country’s business and political leadership would be “abnormal” and weakened.

“Any space that does not look like our country and like our cities is not normal,” she said, “and not the city or country we are trying to build."

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., right, greets guests while arriving for a roundtable meeting, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. gestures while addressing a gathering at a roundtable meeting, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. gestures while addressing a gathering at a roundtable meeting, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. addresses a gathering at a roundtable meeting, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. gestures while addressing a gathering at a roundtable meeting, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

ATLANTA (AP) — Drake Baldwin drove in four runs with a pair of two-out hits, Chris Sale pitched one-hit ball over six innings and the Atlanta Braves wrapped up their season-opening homestand with a 5-1 victory over the struggling Athletics on Wednesday.

Baldwin had a two-run single off Athletics starter Luis Severino (0-1) in the second and added a two-run double in the fourth to give Sale (2-0) some breathing room after Shea Langeliers hit his fifth homer of the season — the lone base-runner allowed by the Atlanta left-hander.

Baldwin's two-bagger came after he fouled off four straight 3-2 pitches from Elvis Alvarado, prompting the organist to belt out “Stayin’ Alive.”

Finally, on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, the reigning NL rookie of the year lined a 97 mph fastball to the wall in right-center. Matt Olson followed with a seeing-eye single up the middle to bring home Baldwin.

Baldwin nearly had a homer in the seventh, but Athletics center fielder Denzel Clarke leaped above the wall to make a dazzling catch.

It was another strong outing for Sale, who threw six scoreless innings against Kansas City on opening night. Two days after his 37th birthday, he pushed the Braves to a 4-2 mark through the first week. A year ago, Atlanta lost its first seven games on the road and went on to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

The Athletics can relate, having started the season with just one win through their first six games. Langeliers has been one of the few bright spots, grabbing the MLB home run lead with his towering, 355-foot drive that barely cleared the left-field wall.

Severino struggled with his control, walking five and throwing just 49 of his 91 pitches for strikes before he was lifted after 3 1/3 innings.

Athletics: LH Jeffrey Springs (0-0, 3.38 ERA) takes the mound Friday night for the home opener against the Astros.

Braves: RH Reynaldo López (0-0, 1.50) gets his second start Thursday night at Arizona to begin a four-game series and Atlanta's first road trip of the season.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Atlanta Braves right fielder Mike Yastrzemski (18) attempts on Athletics' Shea Langeliers solo home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Athletics' Shea Langeliers (23) celebrates his solo home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Athletics third baseman Andy Ibáñez (77) mags the tag on Atlanta Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. (13) in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale (51) deleivers against the Athletics in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Atlanta Braves' Dominic Smith and Ozzie Albies, from left, celebrate scoring off the bat of Atlanta Braves' Drake Baldwin in the second inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)