Black Jobless Gap Returns to 2-to-1 as Trump Cuts Leave Degree Holders Scrambling
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 28
Black Jobless Gap Returns to 2-to-1 as Trump Cuts Leave Degree Holders Scrambling
1 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 28
Summary
7.2% Black unemployment versus 3.6% White unemployment by late 2025 restored the long-running 2-to-1 gap within a year, even as White joblessness stayed stable.
280,000 federal jobs were lost in 2025, and economists said Black college-educated women were hit especially hard because Black workers made up nearly one-fifth of the federal workforce.
In Arkansas, Kia Mills and Aaliyah McShane—both with master’s degrees—were rejected for a $16.61-an-hour airport job after group interviews that instead steered applicants toward ramp work.
2,000 fewer government jobs in Arkansas and cuts that shrank workforce centers from 30 to 21 deepened the squeeze, while laid-off professionals increasingly drove Ubers, substituted in schools or dropped degrees from résumés.
Four Little Rock women with nine degrees and no steady paycheck now see government work as less reliable, pushing some toward consulting or entrepreneurship instead.