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Jobless rates fall for Black and Hispanic men in September

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Job seekers attend the JobNewsUSA.com South Florida Job Fair held at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on June 26, 2024.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The unemployment rate for men in Black and Hispanic racial groups declined in September while staying little-changed for other racial groups, according to data released Friday by the Department of Labor.

In September, Black men saw their jobless rate fall to 5.1% from 5.9% in the month prior. The jobless rate similarly fell for Hispanic men to 4.1% from 4.8% last month.

The overall unemployment rate inched lower to 4.1% in September, down just 0.1 percentage point from August.

“The Black unemployment rate is still 1.5 times that of white workers, but it edged down in September to the lowest level since April,” said Bankrate economic analyst Sarah Foster. “Black unemployment typically holds about two times higher than White unemployment, among the first to be laid off. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for Hispanic workers hit the lowest since June.”

This marks the first fall in unemployment for Black workers in five months, Foster added.

Meanwhile, the jobless rates for other racial groups remained little changed or fell slightly. Unemployment for Asian workers held steady at 4.1%. For white workers, it inched down to 3.6% from 3.8% in September.

The jobless rate for women across racial groups recorded small declines. Black and Hispanic women both experienced a 0.2% drop in unemployment in September to 5.3% and 4.8%, respectively. Unemployment for white women also ticked lower to 3.1% from 3.4%. The jobless rates for Asian workers separated by gender were not readily available.

The employment-to-population ratio for female prime-age workers, or those ages 25 to 54, fell to its lowest level since May.

“Prime-age labor force participation still remains near a historic high despite ticking down from its recent record-setting high in August,” said Foster.

Last month, the labor force participation rate — the percentage of the population that is either employed or actively seeking work — was unchanged at 62.7%.

Among white workers, the rate inched up just 0.1 percentage point to 62.4%, while it fell to 67.4% from 67.8% for Hispanic workers. Among Asian workers, participation slipped to 65.3% from 65.5%, and rose among Black workers to 62.9% from 62.7%.

— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.

Economics

Trump tariffs could cause summer economic slump: Chicago Fed president

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Austan Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, speaks to the Economic Club of New York in New York City, U.S., April 10, 2025. 

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Business owners and CEOs are already stocking up on inventory, and some American shoppers are panic buying big-ticket items in anticipation of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The sudden buying binge could cause an “artificially high” level of economic activity, said Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee.

“That kind of preemptive purchasing is probably even more pronounced on the business side,” Goolsbee told CBS’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday, adding: “We heard a lot about preemptive building-up of inventories that could last 60 days, 90 days, if there [was] going to be more uncertainty.”

Businesses stockpiling inventory and consumers accelerating their purchasing decisions — buying an Apple iPhone now, say, rather than waiting until the fall — may inflate U.S. economic activity in April and lead to a slowdown in the coming months, Goolsbee suggested.

“Activity might look artificially high in the initial, and then by the summer, might fall off — because people have bought it all,” he said.

Sectors affected by Trump’s tariffs, particularly the auto industry, are most likely to heavily stock up on inventory now before import levies on goods from other countries potentially rise further, said Goolsbee. Many car parts, electronic components and other big-ticket consumer items are manufactured in China, for example, which currently faces a 145% total tariff rate on goods imported to the United States.

Trump’s tariffs on a bevy of other countries are currently in the middle of a 90-day pause, with a 10% baseline tariff rate instead applying to all imported goods across the board. The pause is due to expire on July 9, with Trump touting a series of rate negotiations with foreign leaders between now and then.

“We don’t know, 90 days from now, when they’ve revisited the tariffs, we don’t know how big they’re going to be,” Goolsbee said.

Some U.S. business owners who buy goods manufactured in China say they already can’t afford to place rush orders on inventory. Matt Rollens, owner and CEO of Granite Bay, California-based novelty drinkware company Dragon Glassware, says he’s temporarily holding his products in China because paying the 145% levy would force him to raise consumer prices by at least 50%, likely drying up customer demand.

Rollens has enough inventory in the U.S. to last roughly until June, and hopes the tariffs will be rolled back by then, he told CNBC Make It on April 11.

Short-term uncertainty and financial pain aside, the Fed’s Goolsbee expressed optimism about the country’s longer-term economic outlook.

“If we can get through this, it’s important to remember: The hard data coming into April was pretty good. The unemployment rate [was] around steady full employment, inflation [was] coming down,” he said. “It’s just a desire of people expressing they don’t want to back to ’21 and ’22, at a time when inflation was really raging out of control.”

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Economics

Donald Trump wants a certain kind of immigrant: the uber-rich

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IN HIS LOVE of lucre Donald Trump can be crass. In their pursuit of efficiency, free marketeers can be, too. Consider the sale of citizenship. Most people dislike the idea of treating national belonging as a commodity. Yet about a dozen countries hawk passports and more than 60, including America, offer residency in exchange for an investment or donation. Its “golden-visa” scheme is cumbersome, under-priced and inefficient. On this point the president and the market agree.

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Economics

Checks and Balance newsletter: The Democrats’ future is up for grabs

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Checks and Balance newsletter: The Democrats’ future is up for grabs

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