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Posted on 01/17/2026 11:37:18 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Black female professionals have seen a steep drop in employment over the last year. They are turning to each other for pep talks and résumé advice.
When Nneka Obiekwe started a WhatsApp group chat in September, she was just trying to help her out-of-work friends.
A consultant and skilled networker, Ms. Obiekwe, 37, is the kind of person friends turn to when they are looking for a referral or connection to a hiring manager. But since March, she had been receiving pleas every few weeks. By autumn, her network was tapped out.
Most of the people reaching out were, like Ms. Obiekwe, Black women, and she started to feel that they needed a community as much as referrals. She created the WhatsApp chat, called Black Women Rising, and posted the link to it on Threads.
Within 24 hours, more than 500 people joined. Most were midcareer or senior professionals who had been laid off in the previous few months.
Ms. Obiekwe moved the group to Discord, a messaging platform that could better organize the 500 or so daily messages people were sending in channels with names like “Share Your Good News” or “Vent Among Friends.”
They shared job updates: “I have a screening call with a recruiter tomorrow. Wish me luck!” or lamented about getting ghosted. “They said I’m in the lead but haven’t heard from them in a month,” one person wrote.
The job market is not great right now. Hiring has slowed. Artificial intelligence is replacing some knowledge workers. But Black women have been hit especially hard. The unemployment rate for Black women rose significantly from the start of 2025 to December, where it stood at 7.8 percent. That pattern of dramatic job loss was not seen for other groups.
“You don’t see that same loss with Black men,...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Fixed it.
Is it telling that I first misread the lede as “Black Women Turn ON One Another...”?
“Nneka Obiekwe”
Hhmmm...
In my career, I had several black female bosses.
Awful, awful, awful. No technical skills, no people skills. The only things they had going for them was a sense of of entitlement and skill at bullying. They seemed to think that spending the day attacking their own staff was the right way to get things done.
I would never hire a black woman. Never, never, never.
I wonder how many were federal employees?
I thought I just read that MAGA was a big failure. Which is it?
I dont know. I did read the same thing but may have interpreted a different meaning.
I don’t understand. What the heck is a woman?
A lot of companies over hired and now they can lay off whoever they want and just attribute it to AI or something.
It’s tough being an ignorant boss girl when DEI recedes.
Now they are running for office.
They turn to each other while getting a $300 mani/pedi
Pretty tough in the job market when you actually get judged on your qualifications rather than checking DEI boxes. Maybe they should have invested their time in developing actual skills?
Who reads this whining drivel?
AWFULs?
“Nneka Obiekwe” Hhmmm...
Bingo.
“steep drop in DEI employment over the last year.”
Yes, exactly right. That was my very first reaction, too.
Less than worthless jobs shed, jobs that led to friction, racism, resentment, favoritism, hostility and anger in the workplace. Nobody misses them at all.
I did too.
“But Black women have been hit especially hard. “
No one particularly gives a damn when white men are hit especially hard so why should anyone care about black women?
What job titles are involved here? There could easily be an explanation .
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