The Reality of Being One of 600,000 Black Women Out of Work

An Atlanta-based social media manager shares her experience being laid off while on medical leave amid high unemployment for Black women.

by Shernay Williams March 16, 2026

Video Produced by Shernay Williams/ Word In Black. Cover art photos courtesy Shana Pinnock-Glover and victorzastolskiy/Canva.

It’s been a year since data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started to reveal a dark trend: Black women are losing their jobs at alarming rates.  

The unemployment numbers, notably among college-educated Black women, continued to increase as we entered fall 2025, with some data analysts reporting that up to 600,000 Black women had been economically sidelined. 

In the video above, Word In Black speaks with one of those women, Shana Pinnock-Glover. The Atlanta-based social media manager was laid off from her national media company in 2025 while she was on leave for breast cancer treatment. Despite her 15 years of experience, she’s still looking for full-time work.

Her story reflects the realities of the thousands of Black women who remain unemployed.

“I have seen a disturbing trend on LinkedIn lately,” she says in the video. “I’ve seen people, but especially Black people, write what are the equivalent of suicide notes on their profiles…[saying] I am down to my last. I’ve drained my savings. I’m a week away from being evicted and being unhoused.”

The Trump administration’s policies and the proliferation of AI use have fueled Black women’s unemployment rates, argue Gary Hoover, executive director of The Murphy Institute at Tulane University, and Cierra Gross, founder of the labor justice organization Worklution.

Watch the video above for more on Pinnock-Glover’s story with economic analysis from Hoover and Gross on how the Black community can persevere despite the tumultuous job market.