To mark Black History Month, we’re taking a look at how Black women are faring in the economy – and the situation is not good. Just last month we revealed that Black and Indigenous women especially suffered in 2025 under the Trump economy – and it’s no mystery why. The first year of the Trump administration undercut protections for workers, with particular impacts for Black women workers.
The January 2026 data for Black women show that their unemployment rate continues to be higher than a year ago (6.3 percent compared to 5.4 percent), despite a decrease compared to December. Their unemployment rate is significantly higher than for women overall (4 percent) and nearly double that of white women (3.4 percent). Black women’s labor force participation rate remained steady at 62.7 percent. But their employment-to-population ratio was also lower than a year ago (58.7 down from 59.1 percent), another indication of the challenges Black women are facing in this difficult labor market.
Compared to December, unemployment rates increased slightly for women overall (3.9 to 4.0 percent) and Latinas (4.5 to 4.7 percent). There was a larger jump for Asian women (3.4 to 4.7 percent), although monthly data for this group is not seasonally adjusted and tends to be noisier. Women’s overall labor force participation is stagnating, and hasn’t risen above 59 percent since August 2024. Another sign of the slowing job market is that unemployed people who have been looking for work for more than 27 weeks now make up 25 percent of all unemployed people, compared to 21.1 percent a year ago and just 19.0 percent in January 2023.
Federal employees continued to lose jobs this month (down 42,000). These cuts and layoffs have not only been devastating to the vital services that our federal government provides, from helping people access their Social Security benefits to caring for our national parks. The cuts have also hit hard for Black women, for whom public employment has long been a pathway to the middle class. Meanwhile, health care jobs continue to be a primary driver of this economy for now – also a key sector for women’s employment. But clouds loom as health systems across the country face a sharp drop in people’s access to health insurance, between millions being priced out of coverage after ACA subsidies expired and millions more soon to be pushed off of Medicaid coverage through new burdensome paperwork requirements.
The Trump administration’s harm to Black women continues a long history of racist policymaking that has deliberately impaired Black women’s economic security and well-being. As National Partnership President Jocelyn Frye writes, “Black women have a long history as workers in the United States – from the early horrors of their traumatic, involuntary arrival as forced slave laborers to their present-day reality where they must navigate persistent gender and racial norms and expectations about workplace roles and job advancement opportunities.”
But the effects of these racist and discriminatory policies are not felt only by Black women. Frye notes that while the barriers facing Black women are particularly challenging, all women face discrimination, unsupported caregiving responsibilities, workplace harassment and other barriers to economic security. The commonality of these challenges is why Black women are often a “bellwether” for the economy writ large.
They also underscore why centering Black women in our policymaking by using Janelle Jones’s Black Women Best Framework will pay dividends not just for Black women but for all of us. That’s why the National Partnership remains committed to centering racial and gender equity in our advocacy. We know that the fight for a more diverse, equitable and inclusive society can’t be separated from our fights for essential supports and protections like stronger fair pay laws, robust enforcement of protections against workplace discrimination, paid family and medical leave, a health system that truly works for patients, and more.
