Recent employment figures from the Labor Department brought some cheering news.
Of the 3.1 new million jobs that economic growth created last year, 22 percent went to blacks - even though blacks represent only 10 percent of the total labor force. Another 19 percent were filled by Hispanics, who constitute only 7 percent of the work force. Thus the unemployment rate for both minorities fell faster than the national average, narrowing the gap between them and whites.President Reagan's critics accuse him of dismantling barriers to discrimination and of promoting ineffective, "trickle-down" economic policies. If his policies of private-sector growth are as anti-minority as charged, how do the critics account for the current progress?