Legislation Requires Trump Admin to Publish National Unemployment Numbers with Demographic Data<\/p>\n
With Black Women\u2019s Unemployment Rising<\/a>, Pressley Leads Demands to Federal Reserve<\/a> to Address Pushout of Black Women from Workforce<\/p>\n Bill Text (PDF)<\/a> | Bill One-Pager (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013 Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12) introduced the Better Labor Statistics Act, or the BLS Act, legislation that would codify the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 mandate to report unemployment data publicly, online, and at the first Friday of each month to ensure transparency and accuracy in unemployment data collection. The BLS Act would also codify the publication of unemployment data broken down by race and ethnicity, gender, geography, and industry.<\/p>\n Additionally, the legislation would amend terminology used to describe the Secretary of the Department of Labor to be gender neutral, as language currently exclusively includes male pronouns.<\/p>\n In Congress, Rep. Pressley has repeatedly\u00a0sounded the alarm<\/a>\u00a0on the rising number of Black women forced out of the workforce in the United States and\u00a0called on the Federal Reserve<\/a>\u00a0to take action.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery month, policymakers, businesses, economists, investors, and more require an accurate and detailed report of our nation\u2019s labor market \u2013 but the Trump Administration is trying to stand in the way,\u201d said Rep. Pressley. \u201cWith unemployment rates rising\u2014and skyrocketing for Black women\u2014and Trump firing workers when he doesn\u2019t like the data they publish, we must codify practices that ensure accuracy and transparency. With detailed reporting, we can support our workers who are being left behind and pushed out of the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when the Trump administration is attempting to scale back how much, how often, and how accurately labor data is reported, we must ensure our labor statistics laws keep pace with the realities working people face every day,\u201d said Rep. Lee.\u00a0\u201cThe Better Labor Statistics Act is about transparency, accountability, and making sure our economic data actually reflects all of us, especially workers and communities too often left out of the picture. When attacks on the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics threaten public trust, we must strengthen safeguards and ensure timely, disaggregated data that tells the full story of our economy. When we have honest data, we can fight for policies that truly support workers, including Black women and other communities disproportionately impacted by rising unemployment. This bill is a necessary step toward an economy where everyone is seen, counted, and valued.\u201d<\/p>\n Text of the bill can be accessed here<\/a> and a one-pager here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bill is endorsed by the AFL-CIO.<\/p>\n In September 2025, Congresswoman Pressley\u00a0wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell<\/a>\u00a0sounding the alarm on the rising unemployment rate for Black women in the United States and demanding the Fed take immediate action to uphold its mandate of maximum employment for all. The Congresswoman\u2019s letter came amid the Trump Administration\u2019s mass federal workforce layoffs and anti-DEI policies disproportionately impacting Black women and as Donald Trump attempted to seize control of the Fed by illegally firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. A copy of the Congresswoman\u2019s letter is\u00a0available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In September 2025, Congresswoman Pressley\u00a0convened a press conference<\/a>\u00a0with a coalition of Black women activists and civil rights leaders\u00a0to continue sounding the alarm on the rising number of Black women forced out of the workforce in the United States.<\/p>\n In November 2025, Rep. Pressley convened Black women, economists, civil rights leaders, and community members for an urgent discussion about the unemployment crisis facing Black women<\/a> and its impact in Massachusetts and beyond.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley has consistently advocated for race-conscious policies to help close the racial wealth gap in America, uplift Black, brown, and other marginalized communities.<\/p>\n Building on the legacy of Black women in the civil rights movement, Rep. Pressley led a historic resolution calling for a\u00a0federal job guarantee<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n In a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Congresswoman Pressley\u00a0questioned<\/a>\u00a0Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the issue of full employment and the\u00a0Civil Rights history of the Federal Reserve\u2019s dual mandate<\/a>. Powell conceded, for the first time in Federal Reserve history and on the Congressional record, that the Fed alone cannot get the United States to full employment.<\/p>\n Congresswoman Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker, is the lead co-sponsor of the\u00a0American Opportunity Accounts Act<\/a>\u2014also known as Baby Bonds\u2014legislation that would create a federally-funded savings account for every American child in order to make economic opportunity a birthright for every child and help close the racial wealth gap.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley, alongside Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), introduced the Strengthening Place-based Access, Resources, and Knowledge (SPARK) Act<\/a> to spur entrepreneurship and increase access for underserved entrepreneurs nationwide.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley introduced the\u00a0Equity in Government Act<\/a>\u00a0to codify racial equity across federal agencies and improve government services for underserved communities.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley introduced the Appraisal Modernization Act<\/a>, legislation to promote equity and combat systemic bias in the home appraisal process that has disadvantaged many current and aspiring homeowners\u2014especially homeowners of color.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley introduced the Greater Supervision in Banking Act<\/a>, or the\u00a0GSIB Act, to mandate disclosures on diversity metrics and ensure transparency and accountability of big banks.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley has also\u00a0called on the five largest banks<\/a>\u00a0in America to provide a detailed update on the racial equity commitments the institutions made following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.<\/p>\n Rep. Pressley was also a leading voice in Congress urging President Biden to cancel student debt. Following\u00a0years of advocacy<\/a>\u00a0by Rep. Pressley\u2014in partnership with colleagues, borrowers, and advocates like the NAACP\u2014the Biden-Harris Administration\u00a0announced a historic plan\u00a0<\/a>to cancel student debt that stands to benefit over 40 million people.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legislation Requires Trump Admin to Publish National Unemployment Numbers with Demographic Data With Black Women\u2019s Unemployment Rising, Pressley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-503948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}