The headline numbers in today’s jobs report were pretty dismal. Job creation slowing to a crawl and the unemployment rate edging higher. Drill down into the report, and it’s not any better. 

Black unemployment was up, this month and over the last year, with nearly 350,000 more Black people out-of-work. The Hispanic unemployment rate has also edged higher over the last few months.

Overall unemployment — that’s the so-called U-6 rate, which includes people marginally attached to the labor force and part-time for economic reasons — up over 8%.

And long-term unemployment (26 weeks or more) was up above 25% of job-seekers, for the first time since the pandemic in 2021. 

Let’s start with Black unemployment. It was at 6.1% this time last year. Now, it’s nearly 1.5% higher. 

One big reason said Michele Evermore at the National Academy of Social Insurance — DOGE’s cuts to the federal workforce, which is down by 97,000 since January.  

“The federal government saw the biggest losses over the year, and the federal workforce tends to be very diverse. There’s also veterans’ hiring preference,” said Evermore.

Which has also drawn a lot of workers of color to federal jobs. 

Even though headline unemployment for all workers hasn’t shot up nearly as much, rising Black unemployment could be a harbinger of things to come, said Angela Hanks at The Century Foundation — in part because Black workers tend to be last-hired and first-fired.

“So, when we see things like black male unemployment reaching 7%, black unemployment overall getting to 7.5%, the concern is that overall increases in unemployment are not far behind,” Hanks said.

Long-term unemployment has also risen a lot, with one in four unemployed workers now having been jobless for six months or longer. 

One reason is pretty basic: fewer jobs to go around.

“For the first time in years, there are now more unemployed workers than job openings,” said Sam Kuhn at recruitment software firm Appcast. “More industries are cutting jobs, rather than adding. The last time we saw this was May of 2008, during the Great Recession.”

Companies just aren’t recruiting as much, added Laura Ullrich at jobsite Indeed. 

“Job postings — they are down 6.4% from this time last year. It’s not that the probability of becoming unemployed is getting much higher. But if you are unemployed, it’s becoming much harder to get a job,” Ullrich said.

But not hopeless, she said. Some sectors are still expanding — like health care and social assistance.

“There are bright spots,” said Ullrich. “But if someone has lost their job in software development, it’s not easy for them to just to become a health care worker, right?” 

Customer service and food service is another sector that is seeing some growth.

“Outside of health care, actually the big bright spot right now is leisure and hospitality,” said Kuhn.

That being said, if you’re not looking to be a doctor or you’re not looking to be a bartender, it’s a pretty tough time to be hunting for a job according to Kuhn.

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