The current media narrative in Mississippi is completely preoccupied with how poor our economy is doing. The only measure of economic success appears to be the amount of tax revenue that state and local governments collect. However, there’s good news for those that wish to look.
As of April 2018 the national black unemployment rate was down to 6.6%. This is the lowest it’s ever been in 46 years, or since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began.
According to CNS News, The BLS seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Blacks or African Americans, aged 16 and over, was 6.6% in April, down from 6.9% in March 2018, and down from 7.7% in January.
Mississippi’s unemployment rate for black men and women for 2017 is at 7.3% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to 5.3% in Arkansas, 7.5% in Alabama, 8.9% in Louisiana and 6.1% in Tennessee.
To put this into perspective, when the Mississippi legislature changed legislative majorities in January 2012, the overall state unemployment rate was 9.2%. Today, it’s been cut in half and sits at 4.5%.
Sarah Ulmer
