There are new concerns about the Black labor force and unemployment. A recently released report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reveals that the unemployment rate for Black people increased from 4.7% in April to 5.6% in May.

“Almost half of the increase in the number of unemployed workers was due to a spike in Black unemployment. This might be statistical noise, or it could be a sign of Black workers’ disproportionately bearing the brunt of a rise in joblessness,” Nick Bunker the economic research director at Indeed Hiring Lab shared in a recent interview with NBC News.

Unpleasant Data For Black Women

Amidst the overwhelming increase in job losses for the Black demographic, Black women, especially those in the public sector were most affected. This is according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics’ latest report. The unemployment rate for Black women jumped from 4.4% in April to 5.3% in May. Experts believe that the high unemployment rate amongst Black women increased the overall rate of unemployment across the board.

The loss of a job can negatively impact any household. But it can be even more of a financial challenge for Black families. That’s because the are less likely to have savings or several people earning in a single household according to Valerie Wilson, the director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy.

“That level of economic insecurity, I think, feeds into the more harmful impact of a job loss when you don’t have another earner in your household income,” Wilson told NBC News. “And then if there are not sufficient savings to sort of fill in that loss of income until someone can find a job.

A Worrying Regression

The latest unemployment data about Black women is particularly damning for the entire Black community as they tend to take up bigger roles in their households. According to a Forbes report, “Black mothers… tend to shoulder more child-care responsibilities than their white counterparts, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and are also more likely to be the primary wage earners in their families. The increase in their unemployment numbers can have very dire effects on the entire Black community.”