Government job cuts have disproportionate effect on Black federal workers – marketplace.org

More than 18% of the federal workforce is Black versus about 12% of the civilian workforce overall.
The federal workforce has been reduced by about 23,000 since the Trump administration took office in January and began aggressively downsizing federal agencies, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Establishment Survey. Reuters estimates more than 260,000 federal jobs will ultimately be eliminated this year through firings, early retirements and buyouts initiated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
The economic impact of this mass downsizing has a particular impact on African Americans in civil service, as government employment has long been seen as a reliable pathway to Black middle-class prosperity. There don’t seem to be any hard numbers on how many Black workers have been affected by the recent federal job cuts, but for decades, there has been a higher percentage of Black workers in federal jobs compared to their percentage of the population.
Sheria Smith of Dallas used to hold one of those jobs.
“March 11 is when I received an email saying that my position as a civil rights attorney was being abolished,” said Smith, “along with every position in Dallas.”
Smith handled discrimination cases at the Department of Education for 10 years. She’s also president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252, which represents 2,800 non-supervisory Education Department workers nationwide.
Ten years ago, Smith took a big pay cut to leave her private law firm job and come to work for the government.
“I am Black,” she said. “Even though I was getting paid well, I didn’t believe there was equity in the private sector. A lot of Black people in this nation, because of historic discrimination, have looked at the federal government for the stability — though it doesn’t pay as well as the private sector.”
She’s been making $137,000 a year at the Education Department. She said that’s $100,000 a year less than a first-year associate now makes at a top private law firm. She made $210,000 right out of UT-Austin Law School in 2015.
“You will not become wealthy [working for the federal government],” Smith said. “You will experience protections in your benefits. And that allows you to plan for things, like a mortgage payment. Black federal workers earn more than many other Black Americans. Many of us are helping to support our family members who make even less.”
All that has attracted Black Americans to government work, said Drew DeSilver at the Pew Research Center. He cited a Pew report finding that as of late 2024, “African Americans made up 18.5% of the federal civil service. For comparison, African Americans make up about 12% of total civilian employment.”
And DeSilver said Black representation in some federal agencies is much higher: 25% or more in the Postal Service, Education Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Treasury Department, Government Printing Office and the Veterans Administration.
Meaning, said Christian Weller at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, the hundreds of thousands of government job cuts in the works “will be disproportionally harmful for African Americans because they’re overrepresented in the federal government.”
This historical legacy goes way back. The predecessor to the Postal Service began hiring newly emancipated slaves after the Civil War. And, said Tulane University economist Gary Hoover, starting in the 1960s, government agencies vigorously adopted anti-discrimination policies. That led to more and better jobs for Black applicants than they could find in the private sector.
“If we go back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it banned discrimination in the workforce based on race, color or country of origin,” said Hoover. “The federal government became the standard-bearers in what fair hiring practices would look like.”
Those federal government jobs offer long, stable tenure — 12 years on average, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, versus four years for all civilian workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s in part because most federal jobs offer union protections, said Christian Weller. “Being unionized helps to make sure that your job stays. Job stability, more so than having a bonus or not having a bonus — just knowing that your job will be around — plays a major role for wealth-building.”
Weller’s research finds that the nonsalary benefits help Black families, in particular.
“The typical Black worker in the private sector does not have a retirement benefit, whereas 80% of Black federal government workers have a retirement savings plan,” Weller said. “About 40% have a defined benefit pension. The federal government accelerates wealth-building among Black households, relative to the private sector.”
All of which is now threatened by DOGE downsizing, said Hoover. Especially given that so many low- and mid-level jobs are on the chopping block.
“African Americans are underrepresented in senior levels of federal employment,” said Hoover. “So cutting people who are probationary, you’re going to over-cut the number of African Americans.”
Hoover expects the Black unemployment rate (which was 6.3% in April) to spike higher once more job cuts take effect, and as workers whose jobs are still in limbo or haven’t been formally terminated start actively job searching.
Job site Indeed has already seen an uptick in federal workers searching for new positions this year. Economist Cory Stahle predicts it’ll be a challenging market, at least for some of them.
“These federal workers are much more educated on average” than workers overall, said Stahle. “They tend to have a lot more white-collar skills. About 70% have a bachelor’s degree or above. But they’re also entering a market where demand for those types of workers has pulled back more dramatically than for blue-collar roles.”
Stahle expects laid-off federal workers will face a tough job market in IT and research, while jobs in health care will be easier to find.
That’s not much comfort to Geddes Scott, a Black licensed practical nurse and union official (president of AFGE Local 1988), who has 30 years’ tenure at the VA.
“I love the work,” said Scott, who works at a VA community living center in Queens, New York. “I love taking care of the vets, and my ability to become more than just a provider, become part of their family.”
Scott hasn’t been laid off — so far. But “no one is sure what tomorrow holds for us,” he said. “The air of hate towards what we do and who we are is unnerving.”
Scott earns $80,000 per year. He knows he could make more working for a private hospital or clinic, but “I would have to try to find a place that would hire a 54-year-old LPN who has only been taking care of veterans.”
Scott said he doesn’t know if there’s a job he can fill, and feel fulfilled in, outside of the VA.
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Gilliam Nii Lighter

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