Overview:
The "last-hired, first-fired" dynamic for Black workers persists across income and education levels. And Black women, who faced an unemployment crisis in 2025, are particularly vulnerable to the whims of the labor market.
Across economic downturns, the same groups are affected first and helped last.
This is not a coincidence. It is the result of how unemployment systems operate. These patterns repeat across industries and economic cycles. When layoffs occur, the same workers are typically the first to be pushed out. When recovery begins, the same workers are told to wait.
Education and effort do not change the order. The system does.
Job loss is not an abstract concern. Employers have announced more than one million job cuts nationwide in recent years, according to data tracked by the employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
When the economy tightens, Black workers are consistently more exposed to layoffs and slower recoveries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black unemployment has remained higher than white unemployment for decades, often at roughly double the rate.
Black Women Carry Heavier Burden
That gap persists across economic conditions. It appears during recessions and in so-called strong labor markets. It also persists across education levels, which makes it clear this is not about work ethic or preparedness. It is about how the labor system functions under pressure.
Black women face additional strain inside that system.
They are more likely to work, shoulder caregiving responsibilities, and experience job instability when workplaces downsize. Analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows that Black women experience consistently higher unemployment rates than white women, even when overall employment is growing.
I do not believe the outcomes we see in our labor system are inevitable, especially for the workers who have been left behind most consistently.
I did not learn this from charts alone. I learned it through my work building Buy From A Black Woman, where I spent years working alongside entrepreneurs, workers, and small business owners navigating layoffs, unstable income, and inconsistent access to support. I saw what happens when people follow the rules and still fall behind because the system moves slowly or rigidly — or does not respond at all.
Why Leadership Matters
When unemployment benefits are delayed, the impact is immediate. Missed income turns into missed rent. Gaps in work turn into childcare crises. Confusing processes often lead people to give up altogether. Those workers often disappear from the data, but not from the consequences.
Labor systems are often described as neutral. In practice, they reflect the assumptions on which they are built. When systems do not account for real-life situations — such as job gaps, caregiving, contract work, or transitions between industries — they reward flexibility and penalize instability. Over time, that design produces predictable outcomes.
That is why leadership matters.
In Georgia, that leadership structure is especially important. Georgia is one of only four states in which voters elect their Labor Commissioner rather than an elected official appointing someone to the position. That means the person overseeing unemployment insurance, workforce development, and labor systems is directly accountable to the public, not insulated from it.
When negative employment outcomes persist, year after year, voters can ask why. And when systems fail to respond to the realities of work, leadership can be changed.
That is why I decided to run for Georgia Labor Commissioner. I do not believe the outcomes we see in our labor system are inevitable, especially for the workers who have been left behind most consistently.
Everyone Wins on a Level Playing Field
This is not about serving one group at the expense of another. It is about recognizing patterns and refusing to accept them as permanent. When a system produces the same unequal results year after year, the problem is not the people moving through it; it is the system they are moving through.
Fixing that structure requires more than updated language or new timelines. It requires standards. Systems should be understandable without insider knowledge. They should respond to routine life changes without turning them into crises. And they should be evaluated based on outcomes, not intentions.
Black unemployment is not just a statistic; it is a signal. It tells us where systems fail under stress. Ignoring that signal does not make labor systems stronger. It makes the cost of failure higher for families, communities, and the economy as a whole.
That is the work I have been doing for years. And that is the work I am prepared to continue.
Nantalie Porcher is a Georgia-based workforce and small business advocate with experience in education and community development, and a candidate for Georgia Labor Commissioner.