Black men are facing a negative shift in employment.
From January 2024 to January 2025 African American men over the age of 20 saw unemployment rates increase from 5.4% to 6.9%. Within the same year, unemployment rates for white workers increased by a paltry 0.1%.
This is not a new issue. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collected data from 1973 to 2018 on average unemployment rates across races, including Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian citizens. Between this period Blacks had the highest average unemployment rate every year, peaking at 19.5% in 1983. Data also showed that among men above the age of 20 over that period, Black men were the most likely to be unemployed.
There are organizations dedicated to closing this systemic gap.
Brandon Nichols' nonprofit, The Hidden Agenda, works with hundreds of male high school students teaching them entrepreneurship skills over a 15-month period. “We continue to create opportunities for our community, especially our young people, to demonstrate their brilliance and what they have to offer,” the founder told ABC News.
Another organization attempting to shift the narrative on unemployment is The National Black Workers Center Project, a network that brings workers together. There are centers in eight cities: DC, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Greenville, Miss., Oakland, Calif., Raleigh, NC, and Baltimore.
Steven Pitts, a board member of this organization, believes that high unemployment rates for Blacks are caused by a lack of ability to influence public policies and achieve economic freedom. Pitts is also a part of the project’s first initiative, Working While Black, which launched in 2016. This consists of multimedia stories focusing on local campaigns for Black workers to have access to higher-quality job opportunities.
The Center in Washington DC focuses specifically on skills needed to combat the unemployment rate. Members are taught job training skills, and then partnered with labor unions to further their training in areas such as construction. Members are also taught cooperative organization skills where they learn how to recruit workers and create their own businesses.
The National Black Workers Center Project is different from other organizations because it allows for these individuals honing their job skills to also converse about their work experiences and how to overcome discrimination based on their African American names, among many other topics. “You build the most power when people are actively participating in shaping their own lives,” Pitts told YES! Magazine.
Nonetheless, modern America is continuing to make it difficult for Black male employment. Companies are already moving to hiring at recession rates, and Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada will decrease US employment overall by 0.11%. His rescinding of DEI policies in the federal government will also directly impact Black Americans and other minorities, specifically those working federal jobs.
FATIMA HUSSEIN
Taking away a structure put in place to ensure fair and equal treatment for demographics that are underrepresented and discriminated against is a step in the wrong direction, and will continue to increase unemployment levels for Black men (and women, although they’ve remained flat when compared to last year’s Q4 number).
Black male unemployment rates spiked amid the recession in 1983 and then the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Will this follow suit if we do in fact enter a recession in 2025?