Trump touts prime-age minority and women hires as white working class declines

President Trump on Friday touted the fact that the U.S. is hiring more women and minorities amid a shrinking white working class and a decline in the working prime-age male population.

During a speech at a  Black Voices for Trump rally in Atlanta, Trump noted that for the first time ever, a higher proportion of new hires were minorities than whites.

“For the first time ever, most new hires of prime-working age are minorities and women, first time that’s ever happened,” Trump told the crowd.

That is in line with recent trends, which have shown both a decline in employment among “prime-age” men and also a shrinking white working class.

EMPLOYMENT AMONG ‘PRIME AGE’ MEN DECLINING, TRIGGERING 'ALARM' 

AMERICAN WHITE WORKING CLASS DECLINING, COULD THIS HELP EXPLAIN WHY?

As previously reported by FOX Business, in 1989 white families accounted for 55 percent of all working-class families, but by 2016 their share had declined 13 percentage points. Over the same time period, the total income share of white working-class families declined to 27 percent from 45 percent.

Research from the Pew Research Center could help shed some light on why that is the case.

The most common age for whites in the U.S. was 58 last year, which is markedly older than other groups.

In fact, the most common age in the country in 2018 was 27.

For Hispanics, the most common age was 11, while it was 27 for blacks and 29 for Asians.

Whites were the largest group – constituting 60 percent of the U.S. population – but they also had the oldest median age of any racial or ethnic group (44 compared to the median of 38 for the U.S. population overall).

Further, employment among prime-age males has been on the decline. According to experts from Deutsche Bank Research, employment for men between the ages of 25 and 54 (considered prime age) has declined by about 100,000 jobs for the three months through July.

Research from the Kansas City Federal Reserve noted that the nonparticipation rate among prime-age men rose to 11.4 percent, from 8.2 percent in the two decades ending in 2016. This study attributed the trend to a decline in demand for middle-skill workers and increasing automation, which has rendered certain skills obsolete. The researcher noted this trend was unlikely to reverse if current labor conditions hold.

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While Trump has repeated throughout speeches and rallies that African American unemployment is at historic lows, he also noted on Friday that many minorities have also been lifted out of poverty.

“Almost 2.5 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty since my election, including 150,000 African American children,” Trump said. “When I hear 150,000 – a lot of people don’t know what it means, you know what it means to me? We fill up Yankee Stadium three times.”