The unemployment rate is way higher then 4.1 percent. The actual rate is 24 percent and black people are impacted the most.

[At30wecashout]

Ehh if you have a reduction of hrs you are eligible for unemployment. If I go from 40 to 32, I may be eligible for unemployment if I don't make a ton of money.

That may be true but as you know, unemployment does not last forever. I worked retail for the big bullseye at one point and was lucky to get anything near 32 hours outside of the Post-Thanksgiving period. Most of my weeks were 20-24 or so unless I picked up someone elses hours. A lot of folks are perpetually jerked by those companies and have to deal with being called in at odd times.

Like I said this would be a better way to track poverty. There is a term “the working poor” that needs to be used more in America. Many people call it the working class, but that is a catchphrase that doesn’t really mirror the reality that people can work their asses off and still be living in poverty.

Trump loves to hype up the gilded age and completely ignores how the transfer of wealth to the richest 1% led to the Great Depression. I think we are experiencing stagflation that will become an economic depression before he is out of office.

1000% to the bolded. I used to be Mr. 7 days a week working 3 jobs and that may have been to hit about 30k 12 years ago. In no fukking way was I unemployed. I've been unemployed. That is it's own type of hell. Not being able to afford to do fun shyt because every dollar is already going out to take care of bills is not "basically unemployed." I would rather be flat out unemployed. A great deal of Americans break their backs and still can't be guaranteed a meal or to not miss a bill payment if their car hiccups. Working poor is apropos.

As for the Gilded Age, yea, when he started talking about tariffs paying for everything, he is talking pre-government funded programs using taxed income. He wants to straight dustbowl the whole country with an 1800s Robber Baron swag. I am with you on a depression. Even a big recession could be enough to have people on the ropes.

 

[Wargames]

That may be true but as you know, unemployment does not last forever. I worked retail for the big bullseye at one point and was lucky to get anything near 32 hours outside of the Post-Thanksgiving period. Most of my weeks were 20-24 or so unless I picked up someone elses hours. A lot of folks are perpetually jerked by those companies and have to deal with being called in at odd times.

1000% to the bolded. I used to be Mr. 7 days a week working 3 jobs and that may have been to hit about 30k 12 years ago. In no fukking way was I unemployed. I've been unemployed. That is it's own type of hell. Not being able to afford to do fun shyt because every dollar is already going out to take care of bills is not "basically unemployed." I would rather be flat out unemployed. A great deal of Americans break their backs and still can't be guaranteed a meal or to not miss a bill payment if their car hiccups. Working poor is apropos.

As for the Gilded Age, yea, when he started talking about tariffs paying for everything, he is talking pre-government funded programs using taxed income. He wants to straight dustbowl the whole country with an 1800s Robber Baron swag. I am with you on a depression. Even a big recession could be enough to have people on the ropes.

Yeah I really think a lot of progressive and liberal policy makers and think tanks need to work on their terminology. Saying that the unemployment rate is 24% doesn’t match reality so people ignore the message. Saying 1 in 4 people are living in poverty or hand to mouth is more realistic and would help spread their message better. It would match people’s observable reality and they would be willing to listen and/or read the report to see what the findings were.

Cause I do think 1 in 4 people in America is living in poverty or working poor and I think that number is going to rise significantly due to Trump’s policies which will create further stagnation as people’s disposable income becomes smaller. Which in turn with inflation will create a stagflation recession America hasn’t seen since Carter was President.

 

[UpAndComing]

Unemployment statistics can be skewed way too easily, too many variables

- Does it consist of people who have stopped looking for work, or everyone?
- Do they consider people who are underemployed as unemployed?
- Are people who are unemployed reporting that they are unemployed?
- Is the percentage from a quarterly time period? Monthly? 6 months?
- Are the stats hyper-concentrated in an area of a city (county, zip code, neighborhood) with more unemployment than another?

 

[CreepyMcCreeperson]

They released the Big Brother cast today, and there’s a 34 year old white man and his occupation is listed as: unemployed

 

[Peruvian Connect]

That may be true but as you know, unemployment does not last forever. I worked retail for the big bullseye at one point and was lucky to get anything near 32 hours outside of the Post-Thanksgiving period. Most of my weeks were 20-24 or so unless I picked up someone elses hours. A lot of folks are perpetually jerked by those companies and have to deal with being called in at odd times.

Unemploymeny doesn't last forever, And once your time runs out you're no longer counted, Doesn't matter if you have a job or not. Therefore the actual unemployment numbers are much higher

 

[Silkk]

Unemployment statistics can be skewed way too easily, too many variables

- Does it consist of people who have stopped looking for work, or everyone?
- Do they consider people who are underemployed as unemployed?
- Are people who are unemployed reporting that they are unemployed?
- Is the percentage from a quarterly time period? Monthly? 6 months?
- Are the stats hyper-concentrated in an area of a city (county, zip code, neighborhood) with more unemployment than another?

Not to mention the gig economy nowadays:

Uber, Doordash, Amazon Drivers, etc.