Original URL where the cowards have changed the title now: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/11/democrats-tricked-strong-economy-00203464

I don’t believe those who went into this past election taking pride in the unemployment numbers understood that the near-record low unemployment figures — the figure was a mere 4.2 percent in November — counted homeless people doing occasional work as “employed.” But the implications are powerful. If you filter the statistic to include as unemployed people who can’t find anything but part-time work or who make a poverty wage (roughly $25,000), the percentage is actually 23.7 percent. In other words, nearly one of every four workers is functionally unemployed in America today — hardly something to celebrate.

Any fucking questions

  • sunbleachedfly@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    24·
    9 months ago

    I remember reading about the “true unemployment rate” a while back, I always go there to check the rate instead of that 4% number. So ridiculous.

    True unemployment rate

    EDIT: Looks like it’s from the author of that article! Anyways yeah it’s a running counter

    • CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.workEnglish
      36·
      9 months ago

      Going by the graph at that link, the “true unemployment” has been as low as it’s ever been for the past few years. I guess I don’t understand the point of the article in the OP.

      • sunbleachedfly@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        19·
        9 months ago

        24% vs 4% is by estimations about a 40m person difference. That seems like an incredibly important point to get across

      • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        13·
        9 months ago

        I don’t think the decades-long trend is as important as:

        1. The real rate not meaningfully changing from 2020-2024,
        2. The rate still being high in absolute terms (1 in 4), and
        3. Democrats running as if the economy was not only doing well, but had improved significantly under Biden.

        I haven’t flipped through the site a bunch, but I wonder if the higher historical rates are offset to a degree by lower costs of living in, say, 1995.