A worker
is seen behind the registration window of the emergency room at Grady Memorial
Hospital in Atlanta. AP Photo/David Goldman
The unemployment rate for black Americans fell to 5.4
percent in October, the lowest level since the government first started
recording employment data in 1972.
The jobless rate in America reached a 50-year low in
April 2019.
October is the third consecutive month of record-low
unemployment overall, with September’s black unemployment rate of 5.5 percent
matching a previous record set in August, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
These numbers dropped from May’s 5.9 percent, which had
extended a streak begun in January, when the rate had risen to 7.7 percent from
December’s 6.8 percent.
In November 2016, the black unemployment rate was 8
percent, dropping to 7.3 percent in November 2017, a percentage not recorded
since the months of September, October and November 2000.
The employment gap has narrowed since the Great
Recession, Armstrong Williams at the Daily Signal writes, “when white
unemployment hovered around 6.6 percent and black unemployment soared as high
as 14 percent.” The black unemployment rate was more than double the overall
rate during the recession, he notes, but has now narrowed to 86 percent greater
than today’s unemployment rate. “This suggests a roughly 15 percent relative
gain for black Americans between 2012 and 2019,” he says.
“The best numbers that we’ve ever had: African American,
Hispanic American, Asian American, women, everything," Trump told
reporters after September jobs numbers were released. "We have the best
numbers that we’ve had in many, many, many decades.”
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 128,000 in October, exceeding
the 75,000 estimate made by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. These numbers
grew on top of August’s initial 168,000 payrolls additions, which were revised
up to 219,000. September’s also jumped from 136,000 to 180,000.
“American workers are winning and the American economy is
booming thanks to President Trump’s policies with a 3.6% unemployment rate -
that's near a 50 year low!” House Republicans tweeted Friday.
According to the Council on Economic Advisors, “35 states
have unemployment rates below 4 percent, up from 14 States when President Trump
was elected. And 24 States achieved or matched their lowest-ever unemployment
rates during the Trump Administration.”
“The biggest area of improvement in 2019 especially for
all races including blacks has been the decrease of the unemployment rate for
those with less than high school, which is much lower than prior cycles, today
at 5.4 percent nationwide,” Robert Romano, vice president of Public Policy at
Americans for Limited Government, writes in the Minnesota Sun.
“On balance, the Trump economy has been better on an
unemployment rate basis as any other boom economy in modern history, including
the 1990s,” Romano adds. “It has helped every group of Americans from every
walk of life. What separates it is the improvement for those Americans who were
historically disadvantaged. The gaps of inequality are eroding faster than
ever.”
The black unemployment rate during the George W. Bush and
Obama administrations fluctuated between 7 and 17 percent.
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