By the Arkansas Black Vitality Staff

May 30, 2025 –Black unemployment in April jumped 0.7 percentage points between March and April, testing the well-worn Trump administration talking points that the Black economy improves under the MAGA agenda.

The Arkansas Department of Commerce, in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), announced on May 21 that Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.7% in April, well below the national jobless rate at 4.2%.

For Black workers, however, the state jobless rate (not seasonally adjusted) in April stands at an alarming 5.9%, which is 2.1 percentage points above the state average and 1.5% higher than the national unemployment rate. The Black unemployment rate in Arkansas is reported monthly by the state Division of Workforce Services, though it is not released to the public. This rate started the year at 4.3%.

In April, Arkansas’ civilian labor force totaled 1,519, comprising 1,406 employed individuals and 113 unemployed Arkansans actively seeking work. Arkansas reached record-high levels of employment in April, while the labor force participation rate held steady at 58.4%.

Overall, there are now 1,422,616 individuals in the Arkansas labor pool, up 19,314 from 1,421,097 a year ago. Compared to April 2024, there are 14,459 more employed individuals in the Natural State. The number of unemployed Arkansans actively looking for work has increased by 4,855, raising the unemployment rate by three-tenths of a point.

Arkansas’ nonfarm payroll jobs rose 7,800 in April, reaching a new record high total of 1,386,400 jobs. Ten major industry sectors posted monthly increases. The largest gains were in Professional and Business Services (+2,600), Leisure and Hospitality (+2,100), Government (+1,100), and Construction (+1,000).

Compared to April 2024, Arkansas has added 19,100 nonfarm payroll jobs. Notable growth occurred in Private Education and Health Services (+7,800), Trade-Transportation-Utilities (+6,000), Professional and Business Services (+2,100), and Manufacturing (+1,700). Compared to March 2024, the state has 13,000 more jobs, with significant growth in Private Education and Health Services (+7,500), Trade-Transportation-Utilities (+4,700), and Manufacturing (+2,100).

Nationally, the Black unemployment rate is also rising but not as fast as the striking changes in the Arkansas civilian labor pool. In April, the national unemployment rate held at 4.2%, which is over two percentage points lower than the Black jobless rate at 6.3%. That compares to a 3% jobless rate for Asians, 3.7% for Whites, and 5.1% for Hispanics. Altogether, there were 22.18 million Black Americans in the civilian labor pool at the end of April, down almost 1% from 22 million a year ago.

What is striking about the national data is that the participation rate for male Black workers, at 69.1%, is significantly higher than the national average and that of other racial groups. Through April, the national participation rate was steady at 62.1%. While the jobless rate doesn’t measure discouraged workers, the participation rate is seen by some experts as a better metric to gauge the health of the job market because it includes both individuals who have a job or those looking for one

In a meeting with President Trump on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell discussed key economic developments, including growth, employment and inflation. In April, a speech by Powell shook Wall Street and global financial markets after the Fed chair said that the central bank is not prepared to adjust U.S. monetary policy until there is some clarity on President Trump’s tariff policy.

He also stated that the U.S. labor market is at or near maximum employment, but job growth has slowed relative to last year, not mentioning the thousands of ongoing and expected jobs cuts by the Trump administration through Elon Musk’s Department of Government of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In the latest meeting, Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy with the president, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and its implications for the U.S. outlook. He also told the president that the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy as required by law to support maximum employment and stable prices, will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis.

Since taking office for his second term in January, President Trump has sought to undermine the independence of the FOMC by publicly stating that he might consider replacing Powell before his term ends in 2026, although no president has ever done so. Although Trump has publicly stated that there is no inflation and that Powell and the FOMC should cut interest rates, Powell reiterated on Thursday that he remained unmoved after his White House meeting, which was called at the president’s behest.

Meanwhile, labor economists are anxiously awaiting the U.S. May jobless report, which will be released on May 6. According to a closely monitored job report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S.-based employers announced 105,441 cuts in April, down 62% from the 275,240 job cuts reported in March. This number is up 63% from the 64,789 cuts announced in the same month last year, according to the monthly report from the Chicago-based global outplacement and executive coaching firm.

April’s total is the highest for the month since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, when 671,129 cuts were announced, the highest number recorded in a month since Challenger began reporting on job cut announcements in 1989. With the exclusion of April 2020, last month’s total is the highest since 2009, when 132,590 job cut plans were announced.

“Though the Government cuts are front and center, we saw job cuts across sectors last month. Generally, companies are citing the economy and new technology. Employers are slow to hire and limiting hiring plans as they wait and see what will happen with trade, supply chain, and consumer spending,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.