Overview

• In a letter to Chair Jerome Powell, Rep. Ayanna Pressley asked the Federal Reserve to explain how it will uphold its maximum-employment mandate for Black women and to provide disaggregated reporting on recent job losses.
• BLS data show 319,000 fewer Black women employed in July than in February, a 1.3 percentage-point rise in their unemployment rate, as Black unemployment reached 7.5% in August with overall unemployment at 4.3% and only 22,000 jobs added.
• Pressley linked the disproportionate impact to mass federal workforce reductions and rollbacks of DEI initiatives, noting Black women make up about 12% of the federal workforce, roughly double their share of the overall labor market.
• She urged Powell to defend the central bank’s independence, pointing to the ouster of Fed Governor Lisa Cook and recent political pressure on the Fed’s leadership.
• Experts cited in the coverage say fewer entry-level openings and the adoption of AI are compounding barriers for Black workers seeking to enter or reenter the labor market.