Screenshot courtesy of NBC News | For years, the federal government "hired Black Americans at a higher rate than private employers,” said Sheria Smith, president of a union that represents Department of Education employees. Leila Register / NBC News; Getty Images
Much of the Black middle class was built by federal jobs. That may change.
For the last several decades, federal jobs helped Black workers find stable work with guardrails to prevent bias, but mass cuts are threatening decades of upward mobility.
When Francine Verdine took a job as a clerk at the Internal Revenue Service in Houston in 1983, it was supposed to be a stopgap until something better came along. She didn’t expect that 42 years later, she would look back on it as the start of a rewarding career that provided growth in various management positions, upward mobility and the opportunity to build a comfortable life for her family.
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