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The Jobs Slowdown Isn’t Equal — And It Never Is

The latest coverage from Reuters and Axios confirms what we’ve been documenting for more than a year: when the U.S. labor market weakens, Black workers—especially Black women and Black youth—are hit first and hardest.

Key data callouts (Nov 2025):
🔴 Black unemployment surged to 8.3%, nearly double the national rate
🔴 Black teen unemployment exceeded 30%, a level with long-term scarring effects
🔴 Public-sector pullbacks and service-sector softness are disproportionately harming Black workers

This is not a surprise. It is the continuation of a structural pattern we have been tracking in real time.

What We’ve Been Saying — And Proving — All Along

📉 Black women lost 198,000 jobs from Jan. to Nov. 2025, far more than any other demographic group
📉 Employment declines began months before headlines acknowledged labor market weakness
📉 National averages continue to mask racial and gender disparities

Our prior analyses:
➡️ Black women’s job losses are the canary in the coal mine
🔗 Black Enterprise: Black Women Lost an Extra 106,000 Jobs
https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-women-loss-extra-106000-jobs-april-unemployment/

➡️ BLS data shows growing divergence beneath headline numbers
🔗 Impact Investing Online: December 2025 Employment Situation
https://www.impactinvesting.online/2025/12/bls-employment-situation-report.html

➡️ This gap has deep roots — not a one-month anomaly
🔗 Impact Investing Online: Unemployment by Race & Ethnicity (June)
https://www.impactinvesting.online/2024/07/unemployment-by-race-ethnicity-for-june.html

Why This Matters

Black women are often primary breadwinners.
Black teens facing joblessness today face lower lifetime earnings tomorrow.
Minority-owned businesses lose workers, customers, and capital at the same time.

This is not a “soft landing” for everyone.

Bottom Line

If policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders only watch the headline unemployment rate, they will miss the real warning signals—and repeat the same policy mistakes.

We don’t have a data problem.
We have an attention and accountability problem.

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