America’s first Black billionaire, BET founder Robert L. Johnson, says that Black Americans should be encouraged by the growing economy under President Trump. If African Americans put aside for a moment their opinion of Donald Trump’s words and actions and be perfectly honest, they’d see: From the East to the West Coast, the nation is experiencing good economic news.
The Dow continues to break records. Unemployment is down and Black unemployment, at 6.8 percent, is the lowest it’s been since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping such records.
Layoffs are down. Spending on capital goods is way up. Growth in the GDP is likely to top 3 percent. Businesses are raising wages, paying bonuses and announcing expansion plans. These stats are probably news to most, but that’s no surprise — there’s a conspiracy of silence to ensure no one gives President Donald Trump credit for the economic climb.
The economy grew at a rate of about 3 percent in past quarters. The more than 40 percent increase in the Dow Jones industrial average means a nearly $7 trillion jump in wealth. That has benefited the rich, yes, but every one of the 55 million Americans with a 401(k) plan, the 20 million with IRAs and the millions more with public and private pension plans have benefited, too.
“Unemployment for Blacks declined from 7.9 percent in December 2016 to 6.8 percent at the end of last year,” said Patrice Lee Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum. “Nearly half a million more black workers are employed compared to one year ago. This is a significant achievement. … Black women, who enjoy the highest labor participation rates among women in the labor force, made great strides as well. Some 246,000 Black women gained jobs over the past year. The unemployment rate among Black women fell from 7 percent to 5.8 percent.”
Fiat Chrysler announced it is moving an auto factory to Michigan with 2,500 jobs. After decades of outsourcing jobs from America, companies are creating jobs here. We’ve had similar announcements of worker bonuses or new hiring from Disney, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and FedEx.
African Americans should put more emphasis on economics than politics.
“You have to take encouragement from what’s happening in the labor force and the job market,” Johnson said. “We’ve not had African-American unemployment this low and the spread between unemployment among Whites and African Americans narrowing as it is.”
William Reed is publisher of “Who’s Who in Black Corporate America” and available for projects via Busxchng@his.com.
Hello Mr. William Reed. I want to make a comment towards your article, “Time for the Blacks to give Trump his just due”. In my opinion, I think the title of the article is inaccurate. The title of the article should really state, “Time for the current Administration (Trump)to give the previous Administration (Obama) their just due”. I do agree that we as a nation has currently seen the rise in the economy, a decline in unemployment (to historic levels), and a rise in the stock markets. As you noted, BET Billionaire Robert L. Johnson has indicated that “Blacks should be encouraged by the growing economy under the Trump Administration”. Although the growing economy has been successful under the Trump Administration, we have to realize and recognize that the rising economy and the decline in unemployment was initially under the previous (Obama) Administration. The Trump Administration actually “inherited” an already improving economy and “continued” what the Obama Administration had ALREADY ESTABLISHED. Under the Obama Administration, the black unemployment rate had declined from 17% in 2010 to 7.8 in 2017 when the new administration took office. The Labor Force Unemployment had declined from a high of 9.9% in 2009 to 4.4 in 2017 (https://data.bls.gov). As you can recall, the 9.9% was during the timeline of the financial collapse (as President Obama was coming into office in 2008). If you view http://www.factcheck.org/2016/01/obamas-numbers-january-2016-update/, you can see that under the President Obama tenure, Long Term Unemployment declined, Unemployment rate declined, Jobs increased, Earnings increased, Corporate profits increased, Exports of Goods and Services increased, S&P increased, Job Openings increased, etc. To be fair, Debt also increased. But let’s consider that when President Obama took office the nation was in a financial collapse due to reckless, risk and negligent actions and procedures of business and institutions. Our market collapsed, however it was the policies and the direction of the Government and the Obama Administration that took us out of the recession and on the road to recovery. This was a phenomenal feat to bring the economy back into moderate standings. Why aren’t we giving the Previous Administration credit for this? Why isn’t the current Administration crediting the Obama Administration for its achievements in the economy? We can thank the Trump Administration for continuing what the Obama Administration started with the rise in economy and decline in black unemployment/overall unemployment. And thank the Trump Administration for the rise in the stock market (which the stock market did have a modest rise during the Obama Administration as well). However, let’s recognize the implementation of this achievement from the Previous Administration. Let’s truly give our Past Due to the Administration that really deserves it.
Mr. Reed. I don’t mind giving President Trump credit when an achievement is made that benefits us (as a whole), but the real question is will his administration give credit for the achievement of the previous administration?