Report: Black Unemployment Reaches Lowest Level in 17 Years

What to make of this?

According to figures just published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the steady drop in black unemployment continues, with the jobless rate of black Americans now at a 17-year low.

The rate has been steadily declining each month since February, when it was at 8.1 percent. The most recently-declared rate, announced for the month of May, is 7.5 percent.

President Trump made a concerted effort to court the black vote during his time last year on the campaign trail. In one appearance in North Carolina last October, just before the election, Trump proposed a ���new deal��� to black Americans that would consist of ���safe communities, great education, and high-paying jobs.��� In another campaign event last August in Milwaukee, Trump declared that ���Hillary Clinton-backed policies are responsible for the problems in the inner cities today, and a vote for her is a vote for another generation of poverty, high crime and lost opportunities.���

For their part, high-profile black lawmakers grew noticeably impatient with President Obama on the matter of joblessness in the minority community. Congresswoman Maxine Waters went hard after Obama on the subject back in 2011, excoriating him for his failure to ���acknowledge the economic disaster in the African American community,��� while Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver said at the same time that ���if Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large