White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday issued a correction via Twitter for her contention that three times the number of jobs were created for black workers during President Trump’s first year and a half than were created during former President Obama’s entire eight years.
Yet, Sanders refused to apologize for the “700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump.”
Correction from today’s briefing: Jobs numbers for Pres Trump and Pres Obama were correct, but the time frame for Pres Obama wasn’t. I’m sorry for the mistake, but no apologies for the 700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump https://t.co/EXGvbliwlS
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) August 15, 2018
“Correction from today’s briefing: Jobs numbers for Pres Trump and Pres Obama were correct, but the time frame for Pres Obama wasn’t,” read Sanders’ tweet. “I’m sorry for the mistake, but no apologies for the 700,000 jobs for African Americans created under President Trump.”
Sanders’ tweet included a link to a tweet from the Council of Economic Advisers, which apologized for its “earlier miscommunication” to the press secretary.
Apologies for @WhiteHouseCEA‘s earlier miscommunication to @PressSec.
— CEA (@WhiteHouseCEA) August 14, 2018
Although Sanders’ numbers for black employment under President Trump were accurate, the White House press secretary was criticized for under-counting the numbers under Obama.
Business Insider reports:
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of African-Americans employed increased by 2,955,000 between January 2009 — when Obama took office — and January 2017 — when Trump was sworn in as president. Since Trump took over, the number has increased another 708,000 according to the BLS.
So while Sanders’s numbers for black employment under Trump were correct, the numbers for Obama were vastly under-counted.
Even using those numbers, at the current rate the strides made under President Trump in the area of black employment are on pace to outperform Obama’s by well over half a million. Already, under President Trump, the gap between white and black unemployment is the smallest it’s been since the percentages started being recorded in the early 1970s.