President Donald Trump appeared to take credit score for “document” Black employment in a Reality Social put up amid rising Black unemployment throughout his second time period.
On Thursday night time, Trump posted a meme aiming at former Presidents Invoice Clinton and Barack Obama and their document for Black Individuals. For Clinton, the picture reads “document Black imprisonment,” seemingly referring to his notorious 1994 crime invoice, and for Obama, “document Black welfare.”
However for Trump himself, the meme reads, “document Black employment.”
Throughout Trump’s first time period as president, Black unemployment reached its lowest stage at the moment at 5.3% in 2019, although it will definitely spiked to 16.9% in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the document low Black unemployment charge really goes to former President Joe Biden. Throughout Biden’s time period, the Black unemployment charge dropped to an all-time low of 4.8%.
Throughout his second time period, the Black unemployment charge has steadily elevated. By the tip of Trump’s first month in workplace this yr, the Black unemployment charge was 6%. It has since spiked to 7.5%, inflicting alarm for economists and advocates, who, citing Trump’s tariff and anti-DEI insurance policies and cuts to the federal workforce, warn that job loss for Black Individuals may sign broader financial bother down the road.
“You possibly can see how a tariff coverage that’s on once more, off once more creates uncertainty for companies, slows hiring, and can inevitably have a disproportionately detrimental impact on Black employees,” Angela Hanks, chief of coverage applications of The Century Basis and a former Division of Labor official beneath the Biden administration, beforehand advised theGrio.
“Black employees are sometimes final employed, first fired, and so once you see Black unemployment rising, it’s each regarding for Black employees, but it surely additionally tends to counsel one thing deeper is occurring within the financial system,” Hanks defined.
Amid the present federal authorities shutdown, the Black unemployment charge may take an even bigger hit, because the White Home has indicated that it may use it as a chance to fireplace hundreds extra federal employees.
Whereas Black Individuals make up 13% of the overall U.S. inhabitants, they represented a disproportionate share of the federal workforce at 18.5% on the finish of 2024. An August report from the Middle for American Progress warned that Trump’s MAGA agenda is a risk to the Black center class.
