Beyond the Headlines: Where Black Women Are Gaining and Losing Ground at Work

C5 Organizational Consulting™ | C5 Insights | Part Two of a Two-Part Workforce Series

In Part One, I challenged the assumption that every Black woman hired or promoted was a "DEI hire." That narrative diminishes our qualifications and can distort how we explain the challenges Black women face at work.

The same concern applies to recent employment losses. DEI rollbacks are part of the current workforce climate. However, they are not the only development affecting Black women's careers. Government workforce reductions, changes in private-sector hiring, industry conditions, and consumer responses to corporate policy decisions also belong in the discussion.

The data show Black women gaining employment in some industries while experiencing substantial losses in others. To understand those outcomes, we need to examine where jobs changed and what those changes mean for the workers affected.

What happened to Black women's employment?

The widely repeated claim that nearly 600,000 Black women lost their jobs can be traced, in part, to a November 2025 Fortune analysis by economist Katica Roy. Roy estimated that almost 600,000 Black women had been economically sidelined since February 2025. That is a broader description of labor-market displacement, not a count of 600,000 confirmed layoffs.

For a more precise picture of employment changes, the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) reported that an estimated 251,000 fewer Black women were employed in August 2025 than in January. Employment partly recovered later in the year, leaving a net decline of approximately 113,000 by December.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), comparing annual averages for 2024 and 2025, estimated a net decline of approximately 79,000 employed Black women. The figures differ because the analyses use different periods and methods. They should not be combined.

These estimates establish that Black women experienced employment pressure. The industry data show where that pressure was concentrated.

Where Black women gained employment

EPI estimated that Black women gained approximately 76,000 private-sector jobs overall between 2024 and 2025. That net figure reflects gains in some industries offset by losses in others. Education and health services recorded the largest gain, while industries such as manufacturing, financial activities, and professional and business services experienced declines.

The growth in education and health services deserves attention. Health care includes a wide range of careers, from direct-care and administrative positions to clinical, technical, and executive roles. IWPR found that nearly one in five employed Black women worked in health care occupations in 2024.

However, employment growth is not the same as professional advancement. An industry may add jobs while offering very different wages, working conditions, and career paths across occupations.

Before describing an industry as one where Black women are thriving, we should examine whether its growth is translating into greater economic stability and access to leadership.

Where Black women lost employment

The private-sector gains were offset by losses elsewhere. EPI identified substantial declines in other services, manufacturing, financial activities, and professional and business services.

These industries operate under different economic conditions. Understanding the losses requires examining employer demand, restructuring, hiring, and the occupations affected.

Professional and business services is particularly relevant to experienced workers because it includes professional, technical, administrative, and business-support roles. A decline in employment raises another question: when displaced professionals find new work, are they returning to comparable positions?

A person may no longer be unemployed and still experience a significant setback in compensation, responsibility, or career progression.

The public-sector decline

The public sector accounts for a substantial part of Black women's employment story.

EPI estimated that public-sector employment among Black women declined by approximately 156,000 between 2024 and 2025, including about 95,000 in federal government employment. Those losses exceeded the overall net decline because private-sector gains offset some of them.

Federal workplace policy changed during the same period. Federal-contractor affirmative-action requirements were altered, DEI functions were eliminated or restructured, and federal staffing reductions affected government employment. These were distinct actions, even where their effects overlapped.

The employment figures establish the scale of the public-sector decline. To understand its causes and effects, we need to examine the agencies, occupations, and positions affected by specific staffing decisions.

When consumer boycotts become an employment issue

Corporate DEI changes have also prompted consumer responses, including boycotts. That adds another consideration to the workforce discussion: what happens to employees when a company's policy decision affects its relationship with customers?

Target is one example. After announcing changes to its DEI initiatives in January 2025, the company faced a consumer boycott. Target subsequently reported weaker sales and store traffic. Its leadership acknowledged customer reactions to the policy changes among several factors affecting performance, alongside tariffs and changing consumer behavior.

Target's 2025 annual report disclosed a decline in annual net sales and a reduction in headquarters staffing as part of a broader business transformation. It also acknowledged consumer boycotts following its DEI changes. However, the report does not establish that the boycott caused those job reductions.

That distinction matters because the economic effects of a boycott may extend beyond the executives who made the policy decision. If declining sales lead a company to reduce staffing, employee hours, or purchases from suppliers, workers and smaller businesses may also be affected.

Consumer pressure can influence corporate decision-making. However, when we examine employment outcomes, we should distinguish between a company's DEI policy change, the customer response, and any subsequent staffing decisions. The timing of those events alone does not establish causation.

Education did not guarantee job security

EPI found that Black women with bachelor's degrees experienced a 3.5-percentage-point decline in their employment-to-population ratio in 2025. Their labor-force participation rate also declined.

Education remains valuable. However, qualifications do not prevent an employer from eliminating a position or reducing staff. For experienced professionals, the challenge may be finding another role that reflects their credentials, compensation, and career progression.

IWPR reported that unemployed Black women had a median unemployment duration of 19 weeks in December 2025, compared with nine weeks for White women. That difference makes the length of the job search another important part of the employment picture.

Workforce research should therefore consider not only whether someone returns to employment, but also how long that transition takes and whether the new opportunity is comparable.

How did other workers fare?

Black women's experience differed from that of several other demographic groups.

EPI estimated that Black men gained approximately 196,000 jobs overall between 2024 and 2025, while Black women experienced a net decline of approximately 79,000. Black women's employment rate fell by 1.4 percentage points. The decline among Black men and White women was no more than 0.5 percentage points each, while employment rates increased slightly for Hispanic women and Asian American and Pacific Islander women.

Industry concentration, occupation, geography, education, and exposure to public-sector reductions can all contribute to differences in employment outcomes.

The picture continued to change in 2026. EPI's first-quarter analysis found that Black men's employment rate had declined compared with the first quarter of 2025, while Black women's overall rate was unchanged over that comparison period. Among Black women, gains for those without college degrees offset continued losses among college graduates.

These findings reinforce the need to examine specific periods and populations rather than rely on one headline to describe the entire workforce.

What employers should take from these findings

National employment data identify patterns. Employers need to understand the decisions and outcomes within their own organizations.

At C5 Organizational Consulting™, our five foundational areas provide a framework for that work.

Clarity: Identify what changed. Distinguish reductions in force from hiring freezes, voluntary departures, and changes to recruitment or development programs.

Compliance: Ensure hiring, promotion, compensation, and workforce-reduction decisions follow applicable law and documented, job-related criteria.

Communication: Make employment processes understandable to employees and applicants, including how opportunities are awarded and how concerns can be raised.

Consistency: Examine whether standards are applied across departments, managers, and employee groups. Review hiring, retention, advancement, and compensation—not just overall headcount.

Commitment: Investigate disparities and address practices that create unnecessary barriers or inconsistent outcomes.

These principles apply whether an employer retains, redesigns, or discontinues a DEI program. The measure is how its employment practices operate and whether leadership is prepared to examine the results.

The conversation Black women deserve

The employment data show private-sector growth alongside substantial losses in government and several other industries. They also reveal pressure on college-educated Black women and different outcomes across racial and gender groups.

Corporate policy changes and consumer boycotts add to that picture. However, neither provides a complete explanation for the employment changes.

In Part One, I argued that we should not allow the "DEI hire" assumption to diminish Black women's qualifications. That same principle should guide how we examine employment losses. We cannot understand what happened if we begin with an assumption about why Black women were hired or why their positions ended.

Black women deserve an accurate account of their employment experiences—one that recognizes their qualifications, identifies where opportunities are growing or shrinking, and holds employers accountable for the decisions within their control.

That is how we move beyond the headline and begin addressing the conditions shaping the workforce.

Research note: The industry charts use EPI estimates comparing annual average employment in 2024 and 2025. IWPR's figures use different comparison periods. Changes in estimated employment should not be described as counts of individually confirmed layoffs.