Black Women's Exodus: A Disappearing Workforce

THE REAL DANA YouTube channel features a segment discussing the sudden loss of 300,000 Black women from the American workforce. Gender economist Katika Roy, who has previously appeared with THE REAL DANA, serves as the latest insightful commentator in the segment.

Roy makes it clear that this is not an arbitrary outcome, but instead the unfurling result of recent federal job cuts as well as the dismantling of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that had made a difference.

Sure, some of these lost jobs are in education, healthcare, and any number of other public sector positions. But these served as an entry point for a largely marginalized people to find some stability in their economic lives—a pathway hardly available in the private sector. What does it say about the state of the U.S. economy when Black women equally can unearth that hom?

This segment ends with a sobering question: What might these impending losses mean for the U.S. economy? These were skilled, professional individuals, with institutional knowledge.