US unemployment rate spikes among Black women, prompting job fair in Minneapolis
KSTP. By Renée Cooper.
A downward trend in the job market is adversely affecting Black women nationwide, prompting a Twin Cities entrepreneur to plan a job fair.
More than 300,000 Black women were laid off or left the workforce by mid-summer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Penny Houston is one of many Minnesotans impacted. She was laid off a year and a half ago after a 25-year career and multiple advanced degrees. Houston said she has been laid off before, but has never been out of a job this long.
“It was really bad. I applied to over 100 jobs,” she said.
“And I’ve had to sell some things, you know, my personal assets. I had to use retirement, you know, I had to become very resourceful to try to make it, to make ends meet.”