Pressley presses Powell to address rise in unemployment among Black women

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday urging him to address the recent rise in unemployment among Black women under the Trump administration. 

August data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed unemployment among Black women at 2.4 percentage points higher than the national average. 

“Black women unemployment has remained significantly high since March 2025. Mass federal workforce layoffs by the current Trump Administration have disproportionately impacted Black women, who comprise about 12 percent of the federal workforce compared to about 7 percent of the overall labor market,” Pressley wrote in the letter.

The national labor statistics are a broader reflection of a microcosm in the nation’s capital where the Black-white unemployment ratio is the highest in the nation at 3.9-to-1, experts say.

During the first quarter of 2025, mass firings ordered by President Trump caused the Black unemployment rate in DC to soar at 9.9 percent compared to 2.6 percent for white residents, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Fiscal Policy Institute.

The district’s Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee anticipates that these losses will be largely responsible for pushing the nation’s capital into a mild recession in 2026 and decreasing revenue by $1 billion over the next three years per the institution.  

According to BLS data, there was a 1.3 percent increase in the unemployment rate for Black women from February to July and 1.5 percent for Black men over the same period.

In recent months, Trump has criticized Powell for refusing to lower interest rates and mishandling operations at the federal agency. The president has urged the Fed chief to resign and has appointed Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to temporarily serve on the Fed Board of Governors amid a vacancy.

Pressley’s calls for transparency from the Fed come amid corporations’ rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices and policies first implemented in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death. 

Earlier this year, Powell and economists pledged to ensure maximum employment for all demographics.

“Furthermore, the attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] have compounded the negative effects on Black women,” Pressley wrote in her letter. “Economic barriers like hiring discrimination and wage disparities are more prevalent when employers are prohibited from valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).”

The Massachusetts Democrat added that experts at the Federal Reserve need to make good on their promise by tracking data on the unemployment of Black women and researching policy measures to prevent unfairness among certain demographics. 

“The U.S. Federal Reserve has a statutory mandate to promote maximum employment and that must be true for all people, regardless of race and gender,” she wrote.

The lawmaker is requesting data on the impact of job losses on Black women and steps the Fed will take to ensure it continues to uphold the mandate of maximum employment for the group — including a detailed plan of how it plans to address the increasingly high unemployment rates of Black women.

She also pressed Powell to ensure the independence of the nation’s central bank, including fighting back against unlawful firings. She pointed to the Trump administration’s ousting of Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as an example.

Pressley gave the Fed chair until Sept. 30 to respond.