The June jobs report had good news for African-Americans. According to figures released by the Labor Department, the Black unemployment rate fell from 11.5 percent in May to 10.7 percent in June, the lowest since September 2008. In addition, the unemployment rate for Black women is now in single digits at 9 percent, also the lowest since 2008. The national unemployment rate dipped from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent.

In other good news, employers added 288,000 jobs in June, a figure significantly higher than the 215,000 that economists had predicted. With 67,000 new jobs added, the business sector led in job gains, followed by retail and food services with 40,000 and 33,000 jobs, respectively. Health care and manufacturing also enjoyed gains with 21,000 and 16,000 new jobs added.

Although the economy shrank by 2.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, it also averaged 231,000 new jobs each month in the first half of 2014, compared to 185,000 per month in the second half of 2013.

A Gallup poll released on June 2 found that 45 percent of Americans are working full time, one of the highest rates since the firm began tracking the figure four years ago.

“A strong job market is obviously a major pillar of a healthy economy, along with economic growth and strong consumer spending. While few might agree that the economy has fully recovered from the Great Recession, there is no doubt that the job market is much stronger now than in prior years,” the Gallup report said.

Follow Joyce Jones on Twitter: @BETpolitichick.

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