Friday’s economic numbers were very good for America.
The numbers reveal that the U.S. economy is booming and many key indicators of economic health are trending in the right direction. According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, the lowest in nearly two decades.
223,000 jobs were created and the May increase in payroll was bullish, surprising economists, according to NPR. However, the most historic data points seem to be centered around black unemployment. The unemployment rate for African-Americans plunged to 5.9 percent in May. That is a record low. Interestingly, the gap between white ad black unemployment has shrunk to the smallest since these numbers have been recorded. The white unemployment (3.5%) and black unemployment (5.9%) is the smallest gap since the release of these numbers, beginning in the early 1970s.
Black unemployment, Trump’s favourite of these numbers, is down to 5.9%, a big drop from 6.6% in April (this data can be noisy). The white rate is 3.5%. That’s the smallest gap ever recorded between the two since the government started releasing the racial data in the ’70s.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 1, 2018
The gap between the black unemployment rate (5.9%) and the white unemployment rate (3.5%) is the smallest in recorded history. (The government started releasing data by race in the 1970s.) https://t.co/Hlq3Wx0F0b
— Michael Ahrens (@michael_ahrens) June 1, 2018
The unemployment rate for black Americans hit a new record low of 5.9% pic.twitter.com/4MXawp5HkF
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) June 1, 2018
Early Friday morning, Trump sent a tweet saying “Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.”