On Sunday morning, President Trump jumped on Twitter to take credit for lowering the black unemployment rate.
The tweets follow the appearance of Jay-Z on CNN’s ‘The Van Jones Show’ on Saturday night (Jan. 27) where the rap icon where he shared his thoughts on politics.
Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2018
Black unemployment has indeed gone down. At 6.8 percent it’s the lowest it’s been since 1972, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the black unemployment rate has been steadily since 2011. While the black unemployment rate continues to drop, it still remains double that of whites, 3.8%, and remains higher than the overall unemployment rate of 4.4%.
To Trump’s claim that he is the force behind the rate drop, according the The New York Times’ Neil Irwin,
If you think the economy is driven by concrete, specific policies around taxes, spending, monetary policy and regulation, the answer is no. If you think that what really matters is the mood in the executive suite, then just maybe.
