https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/11/fact-check-black-unemployment-rate-fell-during-obama-administration/6059666002/
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The statement about an "all-time high" unemployment rate for Black people during Obama's presidency is inaccurate. The rate climbed to 19.5%, the highest recorded, in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics.
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Among the first laws passed under the Obama administration, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provided for $787 billion in education, health care, infrastructure and renewable energy investments to help spur the economy. The cost of the stimulus was later revised to $831 billion between 2009 and 2019, according to government transparency website GovTrack.
The act also established temporary relief programs for Americans most affected by the recession. It passed in the Senate on Feb. 13, 2009, with no Republican votes, according to the U.S. Senate website.
The Congressional Budget Office credited the ARRA for increasing the number of full-time jobs up to 200,000 in 2014 and the number of people employed that year by 100,000 to 300,000. The act also spurred slow but steady job growth for African Americans.
From 2011 to early 2020, Black unemployment dropped to the lowest rate in recorded history, according to the Wall Street Journal. BLS records support this find; the rate inched downward in 2011 and began a rapid decline in 2012.
In an analysis of Trump's second State of the Union Address on Feb. 5, 2019, the Associated Press reported that more jobs were generated during Obama's last two years in office (5.1 million) than during Trump's first two years (4.9 million).
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Health insurance coverage improved for all racial groups under the ACA, according to a March report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The overall uninsured rate fell from 15.1% to 8.9% from 2009-18, according to an article in the Duke University Journal of Health, Politics and Law, and the rate of non-elderly uninsured African Americans fell from nearly 20% in 2010 to 11.5% in 2018. Expanded insurance coverage is listed as one of the Obama administration's key accomplishments on behalf of the African American community.
Also listed is an unprecedented high school graduation rate among African Americans. From 2013-14, 72.5% of African American public high school students graduated within four years, according to the Obama administration.
Data from the Education Department support this figure. The four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate for African Americans enrolled in public school was 73% from 2013-14.
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