156,000 public-sector jobs<\/a> between 2024 and 2025, including roughly 95,000 federal jobs, even as they gained about 76,000 jobs in the private sector.<\/p>\nU.S. Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, who hosted the Aug. 13 federal job fair alongside former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III, said she is concerned about the effects of the workforce reductions on Black communities.<\/p>\n
Wilson said she believes Black women have been particularly affected by the reductions. She attributed the disparity to \u201cracism and prejudice,\u201d but emphasized the need to respond by creating opportunities for affected workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Congresswoman Frederica Wilson interacts with community members during the federal job fair at Miami Dade College\u2019s North Campus.<\/p>\n
(Julie Robinson)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to say, \u2018What are we going to do to counteract what they have done to our community?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wilson also linked the employment challenges facing Black women to the Trump administration\u2019s rollback of federal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and its efforts to shrink the federal workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just have to give people the opportunity,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Beyond federal cuts<\/p>\n
The government has historically been a source of stable employment for Black women. But broader economic factors can also affect their job prospects.<\/p>\n
Hakan Yilmazkuday, a professor of economics at the FIU Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, said Black women\u2019s concentration in certain occupations can leave them more exposed when those sectors contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cCyclical downturns and occupational segregation leave these workers highly susceptible to macroeconomic shocks,\u201d Yilmazkuday told The Miami Times.<\/p>\n
Yilmazkuday also pointed to the rollback of DEI initiatives as another potential pressure. He said removing programs intended to address bias in hiring and retention could create additional barriers for Black women seeking work.<\/p>\n
The job challenges extend beyond the federal government.<\/p>\n
In South Florida, CareerSource South Florida has seen an increase in teachers seeking employment following local school closures and staffing reductions, said Jarvis Washington, the agency\u2019s One-Stop Operator.<\/p>\n
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CareerSource, South Florida\u2019s Mobile Career Assistance Center sits outside Miami Dade College\u2019s North Campus during the federal job fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Ivette Franco for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
The federal job fair drew an estimated 600 to 700 job seekers and about 50 vendors. Washington described \u201clong lines\u201d to enter and a \u201csteady stream of individuals all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the turnout did not represent only displaced workers.<\/p>\n
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Job seekers wait in long lines during the federal job fair in Miami.<\/p>\n
(Ivette Franco for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t all workers that are laid off,\u201d Gilbert told The Miami Times. \u201cSome people are looking for jobs, some people are fresh out of college, some people are just trying to change careers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade County Public Schools was among the public-sector employers recruiting at the fair. Flore Charles, a district recruiter, said openings included instructional, transportation, maintenance, security, administrative and early-childhood positions. \u201cWe do have positions open,\u201d she said, though she did not have an exact number of vacancies available at the fair.<\/p>\n
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Miami-Dade County Public Schools recruitment materials are displayed at the federal job fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Ivette Franco for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
Women at the job fair<\/p>\n
Among the Black women who spoke with The Miami Times, uncertainty surfaced at different stages of their careers.<\/p>\n
Soukaina Anjali, a recent graduate with a finance degree, has been looking for work since June. Asked what brought her to the fair, her answer was straightforward: \u201cI needed a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
She found potential opportunities in her field at federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. But the recent federal layoffs gave her pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to be harder when it comes to applying for jobs,\u201d Anjali said. She also worried about what the changes could mean for Black women in the workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty soon we are going to be going back down the ladder,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were making so much progress already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether she felt optimistic about finding work, Anjali was uncertain. She graduated last year and said Miami\u2019s competitive job market presents another challenge.<\/p>\n
For Shirley, the uncertainty comes after a much longer search.<\/p>\n
She arrived expecting interviews, she said, but found some federal recruiters directing candidates to websites and potential openings rather than hiring on the spot. After three years of looking for work, she is willing to take a job in either the public or private sector.<\/p>\n
Shirley believes being a Black woman in her 50s has made finding work more difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only being a woman, also my race, as well as age, becomes a factor in the job market,\u201d she said. \u201cThe moment you hit your 40s and up, the job market becomes difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what comes next, Shirley paused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cAs I sit here, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s heart-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Shirley, looking for work has become a job of its own. The South Florida woman, who declined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[95343,151516,151531,151526,151522,151527,151519,151528,1687,151518,151529,151521,151513,151514,151525,151517,225,227,226,27382,960,151520,151515,151524,151530,151523,3926,2640],"class_list":["post-376095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-black-women","tag-black-women-employment","tag-black-women-facing-challenges-in-job-market","tag-black-women-in-the-workforce","tag-black-women-job-losses","tag-black-women-lose-government-jobs","tag-black-women-unemployment","tag-black-women-unemployment-in-florida","tag-employment","tag-federal-job-cuts","tag-federal-job-cuts-impact-black-women","tag-federal-job-fair","tag-federal-jobs","tag-federal-workforce","tag-federal-workforce-reductions","tag-government-jobs","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-job-market","tag-jobs","tag-miami-job-fair","tag-miami-jobs","tag-miami-dade-employment","tag-miami-dade-federal-job-fair-2026","tag-public-sector-jobs","tag-south-florida-jobs","tag-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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