Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts is calling on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to address a troubling trend in the job market: a sharp spike in unemployment for Black workers—particularly Black women.
According to NBC News, which first reported on Pressley’s letter to Powell, 319,000 fewer Black women were employed in July than in February, driving their unemployment rate up 1.3%. The rate for Black men jumped 1.5% over the same period.
Similarly, August data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed unemployment among Black women running 2.4 points above the national average.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
“Black women unemployment has remained significantly high since March 2025. Mass federal workforce layoffs by the current Trump Administration have disproportionately impacted Black women, who comprise about 12% of the federal workforce compared to about 7% of the overall labor market,” Pressley wrote.
In her letter, Pressley also pressed Powell to fulfill the Fed’s mandate to promote “maximum employment” for all workers, called Black women’s employment a “key metric of the health of the U.S. economy,” and urged the Fed to collect better data on Black women’s job losses so policymakers can design solutions to stop the bleeding.
“Black women … disproportionately serve as breadwinners for our families,” she wrote. “When coupled with the fact that job openings and hires decreased overall since July 2024, you should see the current economic outlook as a glaring red flag that forbodes danger for the entire country.”
Pressley’s letter comes amid growing pressure on the Fed. Last month, President Donald Trump fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook—the first Black woman to serve on the board—setting off a fight over the central bank’s independence. Cook has sued over the firing.
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Trump has also attacked Powell for refusing to lower interest rates and urged him to resign, while temporarily filling a Fed Board vacancy with Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
The economic backdrop is grim. Last week’s jobs report showed unemployment climbing to 4.3%, the highest it’s been outside of the coronavirus pandemic in eight years. And a Labor Department report released Tuesday suggests that the labor market may be even weaker than originally estimated: U.S. employers created 911,000 fewer jobs through March 2025 than first reported—the steepest downward revision on record since 2000.
The Black unemployment rate has historically been higher than the national average, but in recent years, it’s been steadily improving, reaching a low of 4.8% in April 2023, according to NBC.
Now, advocates say that progress is slipping away.
Former Fed Governor Lisa Cook
On that front, Pressley also blamed the gutting of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across public and private sectors. Experts told NBC that Black women are especially vulnerable due to these cuts, as they’re more likely to hold DEI-related jobs.
“The attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion have compounded the negative effects on Black women,” Pressley wrote, warning that barriers like hiring discrimination and wage disparities rise when employers are “prohibited from valuing” DEI.
Her letter also pointed to Trump’s mass federal firings, which have gutted the Black workforce in Washington, D.C., sending the city’s Black unemployment rate soaring to 9.9%, compared to just 2.6% for white residents.
“We know that Black women are about 12% of the federal workforce, which I believe is about double their share of the workforce overall, so losses in that sector you’d expect to have a larger impact on Black women,” Valerie Rawlston Wilson, a labor economist, told NBC.
Pressley gave Powell until Sept. 30 to respond to her request.
Her letter effectively forces Powell to choose between siding with Trump’s mass-firing agenda or stepping in to protect Black workers—a decision that could define the future of the Fed’s independence.
