In his economic speech today, Donald Trump claimed that the majority of our black youth are “outside the labor force or not employed.” What about students?
TRUMP’S CLAIM: “58 percent of African-American youth are either outside the labor force or not employed.”
WHAT THE EXPERTS HAVE PREVIOUSLY SAID:
Politifact: Donald Trump’s black youth unemployment number “comes from a computation of all 16- to 24-year-old blacks who aren’t working and may not even want a job, including high school and college students.”
Trump says the unemployment rate for black youths is 59 percent. The unemployment rate is a widely used term with a specific definition: It refers to the percentage of jobless people in the workforce who are actively seeking employment. In May, the unemployment rate for blacks ages 16 to 24 was 18.7 percent, or less than one-third of Trump’s claim. Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to our question about where the candidate got his 59 percent figure. But it appears likely it comes from a computation of all 16- to 24-year-old blacks who aren’t working and may not even want a job, including high school and college students. Clearly, black youths have a harder time finding work than whites. But Trump exaggerates the issue through his misleading use of statistics. We rate his statement Mostly False.