Black unemployment rose sharply in January, as Trump bragged about record lows

Whoops.

By German Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez@vox.com  Feb 2, 2018, 11:20am EST

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump took credit for an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent among black Americans in December 2017 — the lowest level the Bureau of Labor Statistics had found since it started tracking employment numbers by race in 1972.

“Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low,” Trump said in his State of the Union address. “And, something I’m very proud of, African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded.”

Well, bad news: According to the latest job numbers, black unemployment ticked up from 6.8 percent in December to 7.7 percent in January — the largest single-month increase in years. Most of the gains of 2017 were seemingly erased last month. The overall unemployment rate, meanwhile, remained unchanged at 4.1 percent, although Hispanic and Asian joblessness also ticked up.

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/2/16964458/trump-black-unemployment-january