Opinion: Black Unemployment Is America’s Labor Warning Light

While politicians tout the strength of the economy, many hardworking Americans are still struggling to find meaningful work that pays a respectable wage.

One statistic consistently reveals a harder truth about the state of our economy. For decades, Black unemployment has typically run at roughly twice the rate of white unemployment.

Today, Black unemployment remains significantly higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for Black workers in August was 6%, compared with 3.7% for white workers. The numbers may fluctuate from month to month, but the underlying disparity has stubbornly persisted through changes in administrations, economic cycles and labor market conditions.

The persistent unemployment gap is not simply a Black problem. It is an economic warning signal for the entire nation. If one group of workers continually encounters greater barriers to employment, even during periods of economic growth, then our labor market is not functioning as well as headline numbers and jobs reports might suggest.

For decades, the public conversation about employment disparities has focused on education, training and skills. Americans have been told that the path to opportunity is paved with hard work, credentials and perseverance — that people should simply “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

But what do we make of a country where Black workers continue to experience significantly higher unemployment despite gains in education and workforce participation? How can these disparities persist when people have done what society asked them to do?

At some point, we must acknowledge the longstanding barriers that continue to influence who gets hired, promoted, retained and paid fairly.

And today, those barriers are colliding with policies that could make the employment gap harder to close. The Trump administration has sharply reduced the federal workforce — a sector in which Black workers have long been overrepresented — and rolled back diversity initiatives designed to expand access and opportunity, even as Black workers continue to face substantially higher unemployment.

Black women make the contradiction especially clear.

They participate in the labor force at higher rates than white women — 60.6% compared with 56.5% — yet their unemployment rate is 5.6%, compared with 3% for white women. Those numbers make it difficult to dismiss the disparity as a question of willingness to work or to participate in the economy.

Black women have long played an essential role in the American workforce, serving in schools, hospitals, government agencies, service industries and small businesses, caring for children and families, strengthening communities and helping keep vital institutions running. Yet their contributions have not translated into equal access to employment, advancement or earnings.

That is why the NAACP’s response must be about both protecting workers and expanding opportunity. We are fighting the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, supporting workers through job fairs and economic advocacy, and using our Black Consumer Advisory to hold corporations accountable when they retreat from commitments to workplace equity and economic inclusion.

We also continue to advocate for the structural changes that create real pathways to economic security: equitable access to capital for Black-owned businesses, strong wage and worker protections, and greater access to good union jobs. These are not special favors. They are investments in a labor market that works better for everyone.

And the economic case is clear.

When qualified workers cannot find jobs, our economy loses productivity. When talented people are denied opportunities to advance, businesses lose ideas and innovation. When wages fail to keep pace with workers’ contributions, families lose financial security and communities lose economic vitality.

Excluding talent has never been a sound economic strategy.

Goldman Sachs has estimated that reducing the earnings gap for Black women could add as much as $450 billion to annual U.S. GDP and generate as many as 1.7 million jobs.

That is not simply an argument about fairness. It is an argument about economic growth.

America should stop accepting persistent racial disparities in employment as inevitable. A truly strong economy is not one that works for some people while leaving others behind. It is one in which opportunity is broadly available, talent is fully used and hard work is rewarded fairly.

When Black workers thrive, America prospers.

Closing the unemployment and earnings gaps facing Black women would not only strengthen families and communities. It would strengthen our economy and our democracy.

The question is not whether we can afford to close these gaps. The question is how much longer we can afford not to.

Boykin-Towns is vice chair of the NAACP Board of Directors. Williams is chairwoman of the NAACP Labor Committee.