As the nation’s unemployment rate dipped to a 50-year low in February, official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Hispanics and other minorities have been among the greatest beneficiaries of the booming economy of the Trump presidency.
A review of the BLS statistics shows that the Hispanic labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of all people of working age who are employed or are actively seeking work, reached 68.1% in February, the highest in a decade. The last time that such a large share of Hispanics were participating in the workforce was in March 2010. As this happened, the unemployment rate among Hispanics remained at a near all-time low of 4.4%.
This marks a significant improvement since the years under former president Barack Obama when the Hispanic labor force participation rate averaged 66.5% over eight years and hit a low of 65.3% in Sept. 2015.
The labor statistics also point to black Americans flourishing under the Trump presidency. In February, for instance, the unemployment rate among African Americans was 5.8%, near August’s record low of 5.4%. Meanwhile, the black labor force participation rate hit 63.1%, the highest since Jan. 2009.
As with the improvements for Hispanics, the increase in the African American workforce participate was a significant improvement since the Obama presidency when it averaged 61.6% over eight years and was as low as 60.3% in Dec. 2013. – READ MORE
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