Black Unemployment In The US Stays High Under Trump As Joblessness Falls Overall, New Labor Report Shows

The national unemployment rate dropped even more in March, but joblessness among African-Americans has shown no signs of improvement despite a campaign pledge by President Donald Trump to reverse that trend. Unemployment in America fell to 4.5 percent — the national average — down from 4.7 percent one month ago, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday morning.

That 0.2 percent difference from February was double that of African-Americans. But a closer look at the statistics revealed that unemployment among black Americans has actually grown since Trump was inaugurated into office compared to the same time period last year, when nearly 9 percent of black people were unemployed on President Barack Obama's watch.

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However, in January, Obama's final month in office, that figure stood at 7.7 percent. In February — the first jobs report that Trump took credit for — that rate rose to 8.1 percent. While black unemployment fell to 8.0 percent in March, the data showed an overall job loss rate of .3 percent for African-Americans in that same time period.

Trump made repeated campaign promises as a presidential candidate to give black people "hope" for "their jobs." Railing against how black people fared under Obama's presidency, Trump told a Florida rally in October while appealing for support from African-Americans: "So [black people] have no jobs, they have horrible education, they have no safety or security and I say to the African-American community, what the hell do you have to lose?"

Weeks later, Trump said "too many African-Americans have been left behind," telling black people in particular that "whether you vote for me or not, I will be your greatest champion."

Trump has made overtures toward higher education for black people, including signing an executive order in February to "promote excellence and innovation at historically black colleges and universities," but the strides he's made in employment for the demographic have "showed little or no change," BLS said in its release of March numbers.