Mitchell Hartman

Sharnice Mundell is 48, a homeowner and mother of three adult children, two of them living with her in Maryland.

A year and a half ago, she started a job as a member of the American Federation of Government Employees at the Federal Office of Personnel Management, working on health insurance contracts.

She was still a probationary federal worker in January 2025, right after the inauguration, when...

It was a short ride.

In mid-February, her job was eliminated, she was told in a prerecorded video.

Without income, she struggled financially.

She went on food stamps.

And the job search?

Mundell's bout of unemployment makes her part of a trend, says Valerie Wilson at the Economic Policy Institute.

Historically, black unemployment runs about double the rate of white unemployment.

But in the last year, as the economy has slowed, white unemployment has barely budged, while black unemployment has soared by an additional 1.4 percentage points.

One development in particular has driven that increase, says Benga Agilori at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, sharp cuts to federal employment.

Back in 2024, black workers made up 18.5% of federal workers versus about 13% of the U.S.

workforce as a whole.

So Agilori says black workers have lost jobs disproportionately in the Doge cuts.

And black women were overrepresented in some of the agencies that suffered the deepest cuts, like the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.

Another big drag on Black women's employment has come from the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, says EPI's Valerie Wilson.

Another group of workers worries economist William Rogers at the St.

Louis Fed.

When the job market peaked in mid-2023 and demand for workers was highest, this group had an unemployment rate below 15%.