Black Jobless Rate is Back Up in Less Than a Week by Frederick H. Lowe

Feb. 7, 2018

Black Jobless Rate is Back Up in Less Than a Week 
By Frederick H. Lowe

blackunemploymentgraph-jan2018
Black Unemployment Rate - January 2018 

blackunemploymentgraph-dec2017
Black Unemployment Rate - December 2017

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Less than a week after President Donald Trump used his bully pulpit–The State of the Union Address–to tell the nation that black unemployment had dropped to the lowest level ever recorded, the Black jobless rate went back up, although non-farm businesses added 200,000 new jobs in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

President Trump said Jan. 30 “that unemployment claims hit a 45-year low. It’s something I’m very proud of. African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded."

December’s jobless rate for Blacks was 6.8 percent down from a high of 16.8 percent in March 2010. The jobless rate in December was the lowest since 1972 when BLS began reporting the employment rate for Blacks and Whites at monthly hearings of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.The drop, however, did not last long. It rose to 7.7 percent in January, according to BLS. 

The jobless rate for Black men 20 and over was 7.5 percent in January compared with 6.6 percent in December. The unemployment rate for Black women 20 and older was 6.6 percent in January compared with 5.8 percent in December.The overall unemployment rate was 4.1 percent. Non-farm businesses added jobs in construction, food services, drinking places, health care and manufacturing added jobs.