African-American unemployment hits lowest rate in history
It has taken less than one year of Trump regulation-cutting, and just the prospect of tax reform, to create the best employment prospects for African-Americans in history, according to employment data just released this morning. Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press reports:
The unemployment rate remained 4.1 percent for a third straight month, the lowest level since 2000, the Labor Department said Friday. ...
The unemployment rate for African-Americans reached a record low of 6.8 percent in December.
To be sure, there is still a gap between the black rate and the general population rate, but it is a modest 2.7 percent, regrettable but far better than the historic data.
Despite verbiage intended to minimize the good news (the article uses the adjective "modest" three time to describe the employment gains), the underlying reality and the future prospects for the American workforce, given the steps already taken by the Trump administration, can't be ignored:
Factory managers received the most new orders in December [compared to] any month since 2004. Retailers have reported strong holiday sales. Builders are ramping up home construction to meet growing demand.
Sales of existing homes reached their fastest pace in nearly 11 years in November. Consumer confidence is at nearly a 17-year high. And the Dow Jones industrial average reached 25,000 for the first time on Thursday.
For a purported white supremacist, President Trump is improving the lives of African-Americans far more than President Obama did.
Most economists expect the Trump administration's tax cuts to help speed the economy's already decent pace of growth. Some envision the unemployment rate dropping as low as 3.5 percent by the end of 2018. A rate that low would mark the lowest such level in nearly a half-century, and it would likely force businesses to accelerate pay raises to attract and retain employees. Pay raises have remained puzzlingly sluggish for many U.S. workers despite the robust job market.
Restated: President Trump's removal of the regulatory and taxation shackles that have strangled business investment is expanding the number of jobs available and in prospect so much that people are being drawn back into the workforce, removing the slack in labor availability. That inevitably affects those on the bottom of the wage hierarchy, who must be tempted back into the workforce, or to a new job, by better pay and working conditions.
In other words, the weak and vulnerable benefit powerfully from expanding demand and limited supply in the labor market.
Let the media continue to ignore this reality, as they are certain to do in their efforts to avoid helping Trump. People know very well when they, or their friends and families, get new jobs or better pay in their existing jobs. President Trump can and will point out these huge benefits that the black community is experiencing.
Update: Ed Lasky points out that the Trump crackdown on illegal immigrations may well have helped those mericans at the low end of the skill spectrum, a group that is disproportionately black.