The unemployment rate for African Americans reached a record low of 5.4 percent—a fall of 2.6 percent since President Trump took office.
The unemployment rate for black women reached just 4.4 percent, a reduction of 0.8 percent since July. However, unemployment for black males rose slightly from 5.8 to 5.9 percent, remaining close to its historic low from last month.
According to the White House, “Since the President’s 2016 election, the economy has added over 6.7 million jobs—more than the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Montana in 2018. Additionally, this total is 4.8 million more jobs than the Congressional Budget Office projected would have been created in its final forecast before the 2016 election.”
While some commentators pointed out that manufacturing jobs failed to improve in October, the 40-day strike at GM that involved some 46,000 GM workers certainly played a role. According to the White House press release, over 500,000 jobs have been added during this administration.