Nearly 25% of U.S. workers are "functionally unemployed," economic analysis finds

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• Ageroth@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  The economic research firm’s “True Rate of Unemployment” (TRU) seeks to capture the share of workers that the group defines as “functionally unemployed.” This includes not only people who are unemployed and looking for a job, but also those who are involuntarily working part-time and who are earning poverty-level wages, or less than $26,000 annually before taxes.

  Other economists cautioned against putting too much weight on alternative measures of labor market health, including TRU.

  “An unemployment rate that would be in the 20% range does not line up with anything we see in the U.S. economy,” EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco told CBS News.

  Daco said several factors are weighing on job growth. “You see ongoing moderation of wage growth, which is reflective of employers controlling costs, and wanting to make sure they have the right talent and the right skills at the right price, and not spend excessively.”

  Muted wage growth dampens consumer spending, which drives two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

  “One company’s wage bill is another person’s income, and in turn their capacity to spend,” Daco said. “When I look at potential signs of softness for the U.S. economy, income growth has been trending around zero, adjusted for inflation, and that limits consumer spending growth. It forces some households to make more difficult choices in terms of where they spend their money and how much they spend, and that slows the overall pace of the economy.”

  Sorry for copying like half the article, there’s really not much to it. One research group saying if you count people forced to work part time or who are working full time but making below poverty wages as part of the unemployment % the number is >20%. In response they quote one guy saying “nuh-uh” with nothing to back it up, who then goes on to say jobs aren’t growing because wages have stagnated and that when people don’t have money to spend the economy slows down.
  But there’s no way the slowing economy has anything to do with ~15% of the working age population being forced into poverty, no sir that doesn’t “line up with anything we see in the US economy” .

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  • voytrekk@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Because of the lack of income majority of the population, companies have chosen to pivot to a more luxury focused economy. They are the only group to have actual wage growth.

    We really need to revamp labor lwas in the US. Minimum wage has not increased in 20 years and there are two many motivations for companies to hire employees at a part time level so they need multiple jobs just to make ends meet. A few policies could correct that.

    1. Medicare for all means no requirements for employers to provide health insurance for employees regardless of hours worked.
    2. Mandatory vacation time based on hours worked. 4 weeks or equivalent for workers means companies will need to hire for the amount of time an employee is needed instead of multiple employees being part time.
    3. Full time employee minimum ratios. Make companies have a certain percentage of their employees be full time. If they need to go below that limit they need to justify it to labor boards. They will need to renew that exception each year.

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• lemmyng@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Hi, it’s me, I’m one of the 25%.

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    me2. I get some substitute teaching but yeah I often talk about how I have zero disposable income as I run through savings. 100% I should be considered unemployed. heck wold like to find a decent part time as the subbing is like gig stuff now.

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  • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Me three. I’ve been unemployed since 01/25. I got a job in 09/25, only to be medically disqualified 2.5 months later, right before it started.

    Feels good.

    /s

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• NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I’m more curious about the number of people that have functionally dropped out of society. Counting the “unemployed” is usually measured by counting people who are collecting unemployment.

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• Malyca@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Jesus fucking Christ why are the unemployment numbers so skewed then?

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  • jj4211@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    In part you have the “gig” economy to thank.

    Pretty much everyone can be nominally working as an Uber, Lyft, door Dasher, etc. You might have no guaranteed work in any given time and even weeks without pay, but you still count as “employed”.

    So if you are stuck, you might as well sign up with one of those and get what you can from it. Before you would have been clearly unemployed but now it’s super easy to end up counted as “self employed”. So the unemployment numbers just never go up like they used to even when reality is more like the unemployment going up

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  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    always has been.

    if you are unemployed over something like 90 days, you’re no longer “unemployed” you are listed as something else.

    that’s why when they say unemployment is at 10% the actual unemployment is more like 15-18%.

    so this 25% is likely more like 30-34%

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• forkDestroyer@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Hi all. Am I seeing correctly that this employment metric is actually lower than it’s normally been? Leading one to believe that things are better now then they’ve been?

  It doesn’t feel that way, but the org’s stats graph over time shows that it is, if I’m reading it right: www.lisep.org/tru

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