In 2016, when President Donald Trump was campaigning to black Americans, the appeal he made was a simple one, “What have you got to lose?”
Nothing, and as it turns out, there was a whole lot to gain, including the best labor market conditions for blacks in American history and maybe for all Americans, too, with near-50-year-low 3.7 percent unemployment nationwide. The rising tide in the Trump economy has been helping Americans of every race and background, including blacks.
Since Jan. 2017, 1 million more African-Americans say they have jobs, up to now 19.4 million, the most ever. Only 1.1 million say they are unemployed, down 1.5 million, even as the population increased 1 million and those participating in the labor force increased by 600,000.
During that time, the jobless rate for blacks has dropped from 7.7 percent to its lowest rate ever at 5.5 percent in August, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Put another way, black unemployment is down almost a third from the last peak in labor markets in Aug. 2007. Then, unemployment for blacks hit a low of 7.6 percent, before reaching 16.8 percent in March 2010. The rate settled to around 8 percent at the end of the Obama administration, and then began dropping in earnest the second half of 2017.