Washington, D.C., recorded the highest unemployment rate in the nation in 2025, a troubling sign of a weakening labor market that researchers say hit Black workers hardest across the country.
A new annual analysis of state unemployment rates by race and ethnicity from the Economic Policy Institute found that the District posted an average unemployment rate of 5.9% last year, the highest among all states and jurisdictions. South Dakota recorded the lowest rate at 1.9%.
“There’s an old saying that when America catches a cold, Black people catch pneumonia,” said Avery Carr, a Howard University junior who majors in biology. “The job market is no different so, when white folks are out of work, we’re on government assistance.”
Across the nation, unemployment climbed modestly in 2025 as labor conditions weakened in many states. The national unemployment rate averaged 4.3% for the year based on available data, an increase from the previous year. Twenty-two states reported unemployment rates of 4% or higher.
Black workers continued to experience the most difficult employment conditions.
The report found that the national Black unemployment rate averaged 6.8% in 2025, compared with 3.4% for white workers. That gap produced a Black-to-white unemployment ratio of two to one, meaning Black workers were twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers nationwide.
“We’ve always been taught that hard work would be rewarded, but it seems the way this system works today, there’s nowhere for people of color to find work,” said Joshua Hanks, who attends Howard University and studies biology alongside Carr.
Researchers noted that the slowdown in hiring occurred during a period marked by federal job cuts, policy changes affecting federal employees, and economic uncertainty tied to tariffs and other federal decisions.
The uneven impact of the labor market slowdown was evident in state data.
Every state except South Dakota recorded a Black unemployment rate above 4%. Michigan and Nevada posted the highest Black unemployment rates in the nation at 10.7% and 10.4% respectively. Six states and Washington, D.C., recorded Black unemployment rates above 8% during the year.
Sixteen states reported increases of at least one percentage point in Black unemployment compared with 2024. Nevada, Michigan, and Arkansas experienced the largest increases, each rising more than two percentage points.
Even in states where overall unemployment remained relatively stable, racial disparities persisted.
Maryland recorded one of the largest Black-to-white unemployment gaps in the country, with a ratio of 2.8 to one. Michigan followed at 2.7 to one while Wisconsin recorded a ratio of 2.9 to one, though researchers caution that Wisconsin’s Black workforce sample size is relatively small.
Across the nation, there were no states where Black and white workers faced unemployment at the same rate.
Hispanic workers also experienced higher unemployment rates than white workers in most states. Nationwide, the Hispanic unemployment rate averaged 5.1% in 2025. That produced a Hispanic-to-white unemployment ratio of 1.5 to one.
Pennsylvania recorded the highest Hispanic unemployment rate in the country at 8.2% and the largest Hispanic to white unemployment gap at 2.6 to one.
Florida stood out as the only state where Hispanic workers were less likely to be unemployed than white workers. In Florida the Hispanic-to-white unemployment ratio was 0.8 to one.
Asian American and Pacific Islander workers experienced smaller changes in unemployment. The national AAPI unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7%. Washington, D.C., recorded the highest AAPI unemployment rate at 5.1%.
Researchers said the data shows how changes in the broader economy often deepen long standing employment disparities.
“The aggregate increase in unemployment masks large differences in impact across racial groups,” researchers concluded.