Black Unemployment Surges To Pandemic-Era Levels In July — Here’s Why It Matters

Black unemployment just hit 7.2%, and the first thing I’m going to say is.. it should worry all of us.

This number climbed to its highest level since those dark, uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the country continues to deal with broader economic challenges, this spike shows the reality of what it’s like to currently live in this country (whether you have a job or not), and how it’s hitting one community — our community — particularly hard.

Even more alarming, we haven’t seen Black unemployment at these levels since December 2021, when it was 7.1%. Consider how much things can change at the blink of an eye (or the change of a presidency) because just recently, during the Biden administration, Black unemployment actually hit its lowest point in U.S. history at 5%. Unfortunately, that progress now feels like a distant memory as economic headwinds erase much of the gains made just last year.

And if you’re not fully caught up on the July jobs report from the Department of Labor, just know that it tells a story of widespread economic weakness across the board. So if you haven’t already begun to buckle in on reducing spending, saving and learning to invest, now would be the time, folks.

Job growth totaled just 73,000 positions for the month, which was barely an improvement from June’s dismal 14,000 and fell short of economists’ already modest expectations of 100,000 new jobs. There were also revisions to previous months, where June and May job numbers got deduced by a combined 258,000 positions, with May’s gains nearly evaporating to just 19,000 jobs. 

“This is a gamechanger jobs report,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The labor market is deteriorating quickly.”

And if you’re wondering who saw this coming? Let’s just say, the warnings were there long before November, and 92% of us could have predicted this exactly. The data exposes that persistent racial disparities continue to define America’s job market, because while Black workers face a 7.2% unemployment rate, white workers are maintaining a significantly lower 3.7% rate, creating an employment gap that’s nearly doubled. Hispanic workers are also experiencing a 5.0% jobless rate, while Asian workers saw 3.9% unemployment. These numbers show that when the economy takes a hit, our communities feel it first and the hardest.

The only real bright spot came from healthcare, which added 55,000 jobs, which was mostly in clinics and hospitals. Still, those gains were nowhere near enough to offset the broader decline. Social assistance also showed modest growth with 18,000 new positions, primarily driven by individual and family services which gained 21,000 jobs. However, these gains couldn’t offset the weakness we’re seeing across virtually every other major industry.

Manufacturing, construction, retail, professional services, and transportation all struggled to generate any meaningful job growth. Perhaps most concerning was the continued decline in federal government employment, which shed another 12,000 jobs in July. Since January, the federal sector has eliminated a whopping 84,000 positions, representing a significant reduction in what has traditionally been a stable employment source for many workers.

The broader picture shows 7.2 million Americans unemployed in July, with the national unemployment rate rising to 4.2%. While this matches economists’ forecasts, the underlying weakness in job creation and those sharp downward revisions to previous months suggest the labor market’s foundation may be more fragile than we previously understood.

The next employment report covering August 2025 is scheduled for release on Friday, September 5, and for many Black workers and their families, those numbers can’t come soon enough, not because it will ease the pain, but because it will keep this crisis front and center where it belongs.

The post Black Unemployment Surges To Pandemic-Era Levels In July — Here’s Why It Matters appeared first on Essence.