The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed, among other things, that Black unemployment reached its highest level since January 2022, a revelation that CNN highlighted Saturday as yet another broken promise from President Donald Trump.
“Who’s taking the Black jobs now?” asked CNN’s Victor Blackwell, referencing Trump’s past claim that “migrants” were taking “African-American jobs.”
“On the 2024 campaign trail, he promised millions of new jobs to Black voters, and July was the second consecutive month that the unemployment rate for Black Americans climbed, and that’s relevant to every worker.”
The latest jobs report left experts “stunned” given the relatively low new jobs created in July of 73,000 – far below the projected 115,000 – as well as the significant revisions to new jobs created in May and June, with June’s job numbers revised from 147,000 to just 14,000. And while unemployment ticked up by just 0.1%, for Black Americans, that figure climbed from 6% to 6.8%, the highest rate in nearly four years.
“These numbers matter, not just because it affects Black people; the reality is that Black Americans may feel it first, but all Americans could feel this next,” Blackwell said. “The pitch to America was economic, specifically to Black voters and Black men, more jobs, lower prices, and now we see these numbers.”
Blackwell was joined by Michael Harriot, author and columnist at The Grio, who also laid into Trump for his broken promise on Black employment, and warned that the spike in Black unemployment was a strong indicator for future economic turmoil.
“I wonder what happened to all those Black jobs? Remember, economists always say the economic recession hits Black Americans first, and you can almost predict since the last 50 years a recession by the number of Black jobs,” Harriot said.
“It historically has always been about double the white unemployment rate, but what we’re seeing now is going to get worse. So it’s going to get worse for Black folk before it gets worse for Americans, but it’s going to get worse for Americans.”
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