Author: Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th

Chabeli Carrazana is The 19th's women and the economy reporter. Previously, she worked as a business reporter for the Miami Herald, where she covered the tourism industry, and the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered NASA, the private space industry and labor issues.

Black Women in Martin Luther King Jr.’s Neighborhood Will Soon Receive Monthly Cash Payments

A new guaranteed income program will send $850 monthly payments to Black women over two years, beginning in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, where King popularized the idea of direct cash payments half a century ago.

“Oftentimes our communities are viewed as lacking knowledge, lacking resources, lacking assets. We want to flip that narrative. Communities closest to the problem are rich with resources and insight on how to solve our deepest social issues, our deepest economic issues,” said Hope Wollensack, executive director of the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund. “We want to put agency over one’s future in [women’s] hands.” 

Black Women’s Unemployment Rate Just Dropped. What Happened?

Black Women’s Unemployment Rate Just Dropped. What Happened?

The unemployment rate for Black women went from 7 percent in October to 5 percent in November. Typically, unemployment rates change very little from month to month, so the drop among Black women, who have consistently had some of the highest rates of any racial group, is significant. However, since the pandemic began, monthly jobs figures have been more volatile, and clear explanations of what is happening in the labor market have become even more rare.

Moms With Access To Remote Work Were Most Likely To Leave Their Jobs in Pandemic

The first major drop off of women from the workforce after the onset of the pandemic came in September 2020, when the new school year started and many kids returned to class online. About 863,000 women dropped out of work then. The next largest drop off happened in September 2021—again at the start of a new school year—when 309,000 women left the workforce.

Neither of those events was coincidental: Moms with children under the age of 12 spent the equivalent of a second full-time job caring for kids while simultaneously working their usual jobs during the pandemic. 

September Saw One of the Biggest Drops in Women’s Jobs Since Pandemic Began

Single Moms and COVID-19: Lessons in Desperation and Strength

September saw one of the largest dropoffs of women from the labor force since the pandemic began. The last time women left the workforce in such large numbers was in September 2020—and that’s not a coincidence. 

The start of school during the pandemic has now coincided twice with significant job losses for women, underscoring that sectors disproportionately employing women continue to be hard hit and childcare centers are struggling.