News

Black unemployment jumped in January up from record low

by Josh Delk - 02/02/18 12:15 PM ET

Unemployment rates for black workers in the U.S. jumped in January after hitting a record low in December.

The rate rose to 7.7 percent in January after it fell to 6.8 percent in December, which was the lowest reported since the records first began in 1972, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

White unemployment fell to 3.5 in January from 3.7 percent in December.

When asked this week what, specifically, the administration was doing to combat black unemployment, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointed to the GOP-passed tax-reform package as a means to help “all Americans.”

{mosads}

Trump and the White House have both touted black employment rates, including during the president’s first State of the Union speech earlier this week, in which he said the rate was something he was “very proud of.”

Critics have said that the relatively low numbers for black unemployment are the result of the gradual economic recovery since the Great Recession in the last decade.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Trump was “attempting to take credit for the unemployment rate of African-Americans in the country” that was not of his doing, pointing to a drop of nine percentage points since 2011 and only one point under Trump’s presidency.

“And to imply that his policies caused all of that, to me was insulting,” he said.

Overall, the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January.