UNITED STATES—According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), unemployment among the Black population in the United States has reached the lowest point ever on record.
Data on the BLS website from January 2009, when Barack Obama was President showed the unemployment rate at 12.7 percent and rising to 16.5 percent in 2010. The chart shows a steady decline down to 10.3 percent in 2015, and 10.6 percent at the end of 2015. The chart can be seen here.
In January 2016, with Donald Trump as President of the United States, the unemployment rate among Blacks was down 8.8 percent, starting in 2017 and 2018 it sat at 7.7 percent, and in 2019 it sat at 6.8 percent. In August 2019, the unemployment rate for Blacks sat at 5.5 percent.
According to The White House website, on the U.S. unemployment rate shows a strong labor market. The increase in jobs has risen over 100,000 in 30 of the 33 months since President Trump was elected.
In August 2019, a total of 6 million people were unemployed. There were 14 million people unemployed in July 2009.
In a separate BLS report, the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent making August 2019, the 18th consecutive month for the unemployment rate for Blacks to be under 4 percent. The unemployment rate for Black women dropped to its lowest rate at 4.4 percent.
The African-American unemployment rate hit its lowest since 1972 when this series began. The Hispanic unemployment rate also fell to 4.2 percent matching its lowest rates of April and May 2019.
