Fewer Black women are participating in DC’s labor force since 2024, meaning they are no longer working or actively looking for work, according to DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. This decline is likely due to the Trump administration’s attacks on the federal work force, which has resulted in more job seekers than job openings. In a labor market where worker leverage is weaker because they have fewer options, some workers may feel stuck in the jobs they have, others who are unemployed may struggle longer in finding a job, and some become discouraged because they can’t find a job suitable for their skills.
Black workers already experience lower median wages and higher unemployment than white workers and when the District goes through a recession, Black workers fare worse in every economic measure, including labor force participation. The mayor’s office and council need to ensure that workers, particularly Black women workers, are supported through the no-hire, no-fire economy.
DC Workers Have Fewer Options in a Weak Labor Market
New Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data released by the BLS suggest that DC’s labor market is weakening in the midst of a local recession. With fewer jobs available, workers compete with one another for limited positions and have less leverage to demand higher pay or better working conditions and are also less likely to leave their jobs.
Under a tighter labor market in 2021 through 2023, workers felt more empowered to quit their jobs to find better employment opportunities as employers were looking to fill empty positions fueled by the pandemic. But since 2023, the average number of hires has fallen from 23,300 to 18,200 in 2025. In the same period, on average, 15,300 workers quit in 2023, compared to just 13,600 in 2025 (Figure 1).
Together, the two data points demonstrate that DC’s economy is in a holding pattern, where workers are not confident they will find a new position if they leave their current job, and employers are reluctant to hire amidst national economic uncertainty. Workers with jobs end up feeling stuck or those without get discouraged.
In a softer labor market, unemployed workers look for jobs for longer. The JOLTS data reveal that the ratio of unemployed workers per job opening increased throughout 2025. This is particularly harmful for Black women, who in 2025, tended to look for jobs for twice as long compared to white women, nationally. A prolonged job search can cause frustration and disillusionment with the labor market.
Some unemployed workers choose to opt out of the workforce entirely when they can’t find a job or the right job match, decreasing labor force participation, which can harm economic growth in the long run.
Black Women Workers are Struggling in the Current Economic Climate
The current local downturn has exacerbated DC’s chronic racial disparities: From June 2024 to June 2026, on average, Black labor force participation in DC fell from 59.2 percent to 58 percent. In the same period, white labor force participation rose by 1.6 percentage points.
The no-hire, no-fire economy disproportionately impacts Black women. Black women’s labor force participation in DC is declining, similar to national patterns, and in the wake of mass federal layoffs by the Trump administration. In June 2024, 56.7 percent of Black women were participating in the labor force. By June 2026, it was 55.7 percent. In the same period, white female labor force participation increased by 3.5 percentage points.
Declining labor force participation in DC among Black women workers may stem from growing discouragement—or the inability to find work that matches their skills and experience. In DC, federal employment long provided a stable career path for Black women with less discrimination in terms of hiring, pay, and promotion, and helped to build a Black middle class. Now that so many of federal jobs have been lost, Black women are subject to the well-documented and ongoing discrimination of the private labor market, where many Black workers are concentrated in low paying industries that do not reflect the qualifications of long-time federal workers. They also often do not pay enough for workers to be able to afford DC.
DC Policymakers Should Do More to Reduce the Harm of the Recession on Black Workers
Chronic racial disparities and inequality hamper not only individual economic mobility, but overall economic growth. If local lawmakers are committed to an equitable recovery for DC’s economy, the mayor and DC Council will need to focus on policies that target support to Black workers who are struggling the most to find jobs. In the short term, DC lawmakers should ensure that the social safety net is adequately funded in the next fiscal year to support residents during the economic downturn. They also can bolster child care subsidies and look at policies such as subsidized employment for the benefit of workers, businesses, and the economy.
