Stop Lying, Trump Didn’t Solve Black Unemployment

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election. The new Black unemployment numbers came out today, and it’s a sign of good news for Black Americans. Four years ago when Trump was president, the Black unemployment rate was 11.9%. Today, the Labor Department reported it’s 5.7%. That’s a 52% drop in Black unemployment in the last four years. While Trump tries to scare voters with lies about immigrants taking “Black jobs,” the truth is that 2.5 million more Black Americans have jobs than four years ago, and last year we had the lowest Black unemployment rate in history: 4.8%.  Even more impressive, last year was the first year on record when Black unemployment never rose above 6% at any point during the year. And despite all the talk of leaving Black men behind, the unemployment rate for Black men dropped to 5.1% in September, the first time in a long time when it’s been lower than Black women’s unemployment, which landed at 5.3%. That’s remarkable. Under Biden and Harris, the economy has now added 16.2 million new jobs....