1/ For all those cultists who keep prattling on about how Trump has brought black unemployment to its all time low, a few thoughts...first, as a point of info, that's not even true. Black unemployment was basically zero under slavery, but that sorta misses the point, no?...
2/ Second, you need to specify which policies produced this result. Even if it's true it can't be magic. There has to be a policy trigger. So what is it? Can't be tax cuts. Biggest drops in black UE came in 2017 and early 18 before the law could have had effect...
3/ Not to mention, economists who've looked at the cuts say they didn't really generate net job growth, so that can't be it. So what was it? Be specific. Third, remember, the black UE numbers had been dropping consistently since 2011...this is a continuation. Same for Latinx UE..
4/ And btw, I'm not saying this to give Obama credit. What this longer term trend means is that there are underlying demographic realities and changes in the labor market that actually explain the drop in POC unemployment. Frankly no president can take credit...
5/ Fact is, as the white population ages (median age 10 yrs older than blacks, 12 yrs older than Latinx), job growth will be higher, relatively speaking, for POC who are in prime earning years. Whites are dispro hitting retirement; POC are not. So their UE numbers will fall...
6/ Meanwhile, white UE will drop a bit too bc older whites are simply leaving the job market, thus aren't counted in UE numbers. This is why despite falling POC UE rates the black:white and Latinx:white UE ratios have stayed basically the same...
7/ In short, any president who takes credit for UE numbers, generally or re: POC, but can't show a specific policy that might explain that (like a targeted jobs program or something), is lying. And those who repeat the lie are too stupid to get the underlying factors involved..
8/ Another factor is that most job growth is in metropolitan areas and not the dying small towns and rural areas Trump fetishizes and which he can't bring back to life bc they are victims of macroeconomic shifts that put premium on knowledge production, not goods per se...
9/ So if job growth is mostly in metro areas, POC are more represented in the labor market in such places, so naturally their UE numbers will come down. Again, this indicates a larger economic reality about where jobs are an are not being created...
