#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black male unemployment shoots up under Trump #WeTriedToTellYa

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

The U.S. added 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than economists expected.  While the overall unemployment rate inched down to 4% from 4.1%,  The Black unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent. For black men, it jumped to 6.9-percent.  Black women stayed at 5.4-percent.  Morgan Harper, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project spoke with Roland Martin about the uptick in Black male unemployment. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early.

Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. The U.S. added 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than economists expected.

While the overall employment rate inched down from 4% to 4.1%, the black unemployment rate rose to 6.2%. For black men, it jumped to 6.9%. Black women stayed at 5.4%. Morgan Harper, the director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, joins us from Columbus, Ohio. And Morgan, I'm sure those black men who were just trumpeting Trump,

wonder what they got to say now. Well, I mean, yeah, that is the biggest jump that we saw in these numbers is black men unemployment. The other group that we saw jump was Asian Americans. You know, as I say, every month, Roland, when we talk about these numbers, it's important to note that it is just a spot in time. So we have to kind of see if this ends up being a trend. But certainly it is saying something that black men were the only group to see this

high of a jump among all the different populations that are that are being surveyed. And so what were they expecting the job number to be? Was exceed 200,000. And so what happened? Well, you know, it's not it's not entirely clear. I mean, yeah, so they did they did have to revise down some of the job numbers from the end of this past year. But it did seem like this number wasn't too far out of line from what people were expecting. And the market's kind of reacting accordingly.

And so, you know, I think the conventional wisdom here was if we were seeing numbers that were suggesting job additions of under 100,000, that probably would have been cause for a lot of alarm. Or if there were more than 200,000 jobs, then that also would have felt out of whack from what people were expecting. But based on this number in the 140,000 range, it's on par with what people were expecting. We did see also wage growth. But it's certainly not a sign of the economy is amazingly strong and we have nothing to continue to watch. I think there's going certainly not a sign of the economy is amazingly strong and we have nothing to continue to watch. I think there's going to be a lot of people that are going to have to, myself included, that are going to continue to follow these numbers very closely because there's

obviously a lot of uncertainty that has entered the whole economy as well as we have a new president who is making changes to economic policy pretty much every day. And so, you know, how businesses react to that, how consumers react to that in terms of their comfort level with spending in the face of that uncertainty and just flurry of activity kind of remains to be seen. I think the other thing to note that's interesting here, and we've talked about this a bit before, is among the sectors that are driving growth, they usually are the same sectors, health care, or at least for the past few months and a couple of years, health care, government jobs, and, you know, and especially calling out that government job category. Now, of course, there's lots of different levels of government, but seeing some of the

early moves from the administration to also limit the federal workforce, it'll be interesting. And it's too quick for these numbers to reflect how that might be having an impact, but it'll be interesting to continue to monitor this and see how the job growth data is impacted by these types of federal policy changes that are happening at the government level there. Just curious, how did Fox News and the Fox Business respond to this report? Because, oh, under Biden-Harris, it would be, oh my God, it is alarming that it was less than expected. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't

working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game we gotta make moves and make them early set up goals don't worry about a setback just save up and stack up to reach them let's put ourselves in the right position pre-game to greater things start building your retirement plan at this is preispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Are you asking me or are you showing a clip?

I'm asking you. Did you see any response? Oh, no, I didn't catch that. I'm just curious to how the right wing who lost their mind, even when numbers were adjusted downward under Biden Harris, how they operated. So I'm just curious if you saw any of that. I haven't seen that. But, you know, I do think you're right that I guess I could imagine perhaps what the coverage was there. Very likely to be less critical than anything that was happening in the Biden administration. And look, I mean, I do think that it's pretty typical at the beginning of a presidential administration that, you know, not just Fox News, but a lot of different outlets are, you know, going to

see how things develop and give it a little bit of time. There's a new, you know, president office elected and how that all plays out. I think it's, you know, it's fair to say that what we've been seeing in the first couple of weeks in this administration are pretty unprecedented just with the flurry of activity. You know, take, for example, another topic that we've discussed, you know, trade. I mean, to both impose a tariff and then also remove that tariff in the span of a week. And, you know, and today, for example, deciding to remove one of those tariffs after having a meeting with the CEO of a company that is directly impacted by that tariff, you know, this is not what we would normally expect from an economic policy team or, you know, from the president.

So I'm curious here. Today's report reflects the whole month of January, correct? OK, so it's so which also is a part of the the Trump folks as well. I mean, I just love how how they're trying to spin this by trying to blame it on Biden Harris. That to me was what I found to be hilarious. But but again, you know, that's what they do. They will never, ever. They will never, ever actually accept blame. In fact, in fact, go to my iPod. This was Fox Business. Today's jobs report reveals the Biden economy was far worse than anyone thought and underscores the necessity of President Trump's pro-growth policies. And then they claim that they have been plugging in government jobs left

and right to make the numbers look better. But the reality is the growth that we saw was actually in health care retail. Yeah. And again, look, I mean, this is going to be this is the time for a new administration to show they have presented a vision for the country of what's necessary to spur growth, just like you saw in that statement. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else.

But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We'll see how that pans out. I think that it's, again, fair to say, I mean, this isn't a partisan observation,

that there are a lot of people in the administration that are very tightly connected to Wall Street, big finance, and they have very different attacks on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that's returned billions of dollars to consumers all over the country. It has a budget of about $800 million. And it's not entirely clear, even if your goal is government efficiency, why that would be a target. But setting that aside, I mean, this is this is an agency that's actually putting money in people's pockets that they can then spend, buy things, spur the economy and continue to keep businesses in good shape. So. Yeah, but the problem with that, that is that they hold big business accountable and Republicans actually hate that. That's why they want to. They've never liked it. They always want to get rid of it because they don't like being held accountable. And so in the last thing they want, these businesses, they don't want to see workers, Americans, consumers being taken care of.

It's also why even Democratic billionaires wanted to get rid of Lena Kahn at the Federal Trade Commission. And so, again, the money whenever the money people on the Democrat and Republican side are agreeing to get rid of somebody, they probably are doing a great job. Well, and here and here's an interesting thing there, too, Roland. I don't know if you've been seeing some of the observations from Steve Bannon. You know, certainly one of the main leaders of MAGA movement. And he's been out there saying he doesn't agree with the big tech billionaires that seem to be running, including Elon Musk, that seem to be having a, I mean, not even. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Disproportionate amount of influence. They are actually side by side at implementing the president's agenda, though not technically members of the government.

And supports and thought that Lena Khan should have had more power. So, yeah, it's very interesting. I mean, I think you're exactly right that we see on both sides of the aisle the corruption and the supporting holding some of these large businesses accountable that have been profiting enormously at the expense of the average worker, business owner, and a lot of communities. And ultimately, now we're seeing the effects on democracy, too. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase

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Invest for yourself and your future. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and own the future of social media. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market

to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.