BET founder Robert Johnson said Friday "something is going right" in the economy under President Donald Trump and explained black workers were reentering the U.S. work force, CNBC reported.

In January, the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate among African-American workers was at its lowest point since the early 1970s when the department first started keeping track of the data. Though the unemployment rate for blacks went up in January, it fell in February and was unchanged in March at 6.9 percent.

"When you look at that [January report], you have to say something is going right," said Johnson, founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies.

"You have to take encouragement from what's happening in the labor force and the job market," Johnson told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "When you look at African-American unemployment, ... you've never had African-American unemployment this low and the spread between African-Americans and whites narrowing."

Johnson, a Democrat and the country's first black billionaire, also said the jobs market was "soliciting employees who have been out of the labor force, some of it based on discrimination, some of it based on changes in education, access and technology changes."

Johnson explained reasons why Trump's policies were creating a better business environment, stating he believed "the economy is on a strong growth path."

"I believe if you take into account the Trump tax cut, you take into account the drop in unemployment, ... and you take into account that interest rates are fairly stable" the economy is going to grow, Johnson said.

Trump has pointed to gains made among African-American workers on Twitter and in his State of the Union address in January, but critics say the black unemployment was on the decline before he took office.

Johnson said he had known Trump for years and spoke about a job offer the president had given him. He explained he did not take the unspecified position, saying it was because he didn't want to work at a government job and not because of Trump's policies.

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