In an employment upswing, it’s not uncommon for the UNemployment number to slightly rise...because more people are back in the workforce looking for work (i.e. participation rate).
Another factor that may be contributing to the uptick in African-American employment - a large competing factor has been suppressed with the flight of undocumented illegals back to their country of origin, or going entirely underground as employment opportunities dry up, mostly as a result of greater use of E-Verify to determine the eligibility of the applicant to actually hold a job.
The undocumented (or fraudulently documented) illegal is the enemy of the American blacks of US citizenship.