The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent from 9.8 percent in December. The economy created 103,000 new jobs.
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement:
The overall trend of economic data over the past several months has been encouraging, due in large part to the initiatives passed by this Administration, but we still have a ways to go. The measures we worked with Congress to pass last month that continue tax cuts for the middle class and extensions to unemployment insurance are vital to sustaining the recovery. The Administration will also continue to focus on actions that the President has recommended to increase growth and job creation, such as providing incentives to encourage businesses to invest and hire here at home, investing in education and infrastructure, and promoting exports abroad.
While Goolsbee may be “encouraged,” BLS reports 260,000 people have dropped out of the workforce. Another 2.6 million persons are “marginally attached to the workforce.”
For black folks, there is little reason to be encouraged. The unemployment rate was basically unchanged at 15.8 percent. Black joblessness was 16.0 percent in November.
The slight dip is due to a decrease in black male and black youth unemployment. The black male jobless rate is 16.5 percent, down from 16.6 percent in November.
The black youth jobless rate fell to 44.2 percent, from 46.3 percent in November.
For black women, December “ain't been no crystal stair.” The black female jobless rate rose to 13.2 percent, up from 13.1 percent in November.
