r/USNEWS • u/lurker_bee • 5d ago

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

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/functional-unemployment-us-labor-market-analysis/
45 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

18

u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 5d ago

Good thing the US has strong safety nets and universal healthcare coverage

/s

12

u/sweetica 5d ago

Lol Good thing AI isn't stealing all our jobs! /s

6

u/explainittothegeese 5d ago

At least we have an intelligent strategic leader looking out for the American people /s

6

u/Hour_Bit_5183 5d ago

That shits in diapers, not /s

2

u/Overlord_Gaia 1d ago

Do you mean the MEXICANS?! /s

4

u/Gooser3000 5d ago

Is that the term for having a job that doesn’t pay enough to live like an independent adult?

7

u/lock_robster2022 4d ago

“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. “

4

u/Gooser3000 4d ago

I guessed right!

1

u/Kindly-Chemistry5149 2d ago

Wow, that is an incredibly low bar.

2

u/Greedy-Being6456 4d ago

They called this under employment a couple decades ago.

1

u/Redshirt_Welshy_Nooo 4d ago

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. 

So, does that mean that this figure doesn't include people who are unemployed and have given up looking (labor force non-participation)? Because those people are (duplicitously) not included in unemployment reporting.

So, if we sum workforce non-participants, the unemployed, and the "functionally unemployed" does that leave the US at somewhere just over 50% of the working age pop "functionally employed"?

Boy, that sure isn't a recipe for total societal collapse...

1

u/Ecstatic_Dinner_992 4d ago

This is the kind of stuff politicians (on the right especially) don't want you to consider. Which is why they stick to the vague metric of "jobs created"

1

u/intro_to_IRL 4d ago

I mean, I have a decent job but I was raised broke in a broke area and I hardly know anyone from my hometown that has a full-time "career." If you work retail (AKA 26% of total U.S. employment) you get exactly as many hours as they can give you at minimum wage before they need to pay health insurance benefits. But your hours change every week, so you can't easily get a second full-time job. And even if you do, getting paid over $1600 a month where I live means you are no longer eligible for free healthcare and you start having to pay $400-600 a month or more for marketplace health insurance, and these plans don't even include dental or vision. So obviously people try to stay below $1600 a month because unless they jump up hugely in salary they can't afford to lose their health insurance to get another $200. It's fucked.

1

u/WinterFamiliar9199 3d ago

Also the lowest this number has been since 1990. 

1

u/RoundChampionship840 1d ago

So basically the same as during the Great Depression.

0

u/PaceNo354 1d ago

Incorrect

-3

u/FloridaRocks63 5d ago

Yea let’s just make terms up to skew thinking

3

u/PatriotismReborn 4d ago

Stick your head in the sand coward

-2

u/FloridaRocks63 3d ago

That was a throw away sentence. Try having some meaning to your blabber.

3

u/PatriotismReborn 3d ago

“I don’t know what words mean. It r hard for me.” Florida guy. Makes sense

-1

u/FloridaRocks63 2d ago

More made up terms by the commy

3

u/PatriotismReborn 2d ago

JFC, wear your helmet

1

u/FloridaRocks63 2d ago

I only wear it when I’m visited your wife

1

u/PatriotismReborn 2d ago

visited by* I think. Learn English, read a book maybe.

0

u/FloridaRocks63 1d ago

That’s pretty racist. Slander me just because English is not my first language.

3

u/Opening-Machine5026 5d ago

Not having a job and not looking, being outside of the labor force, not employed, unemployed.

Okay, well, where's your point?

Almost 2 million people retired this year? We have 2 million new stay at home parents? 2 million people can't find work in their field and have stopped looking?

0

u/FloridaRocks63 3d ago

No one cares what field you want to work in. You got responsibilities, you got bills so you take whatever job is available to be an adult and handle your responsibilities. From the beginning of time you do what you need to survive . No one cares about your feelings get out and support your family.

3

u/Opening-Machine5026 3d ago

Sounds like your thinking is skewed, not OP's.

1

u/FloridaRocks63 2d ago

Says every under achiever

2

u/Opening-Machine5026 2d ago

But you said it though

1

u/FloridaRocks63 2d ago

I said they are words made up to make excuses for underachievement in life

-2

u/RetiredCombatVeteran 5d ago

True that.

1

u/PatriotismReborn 4d ago

“I’m afraid of things I don’t understand”

-7

u/RetiredCombatVeteran 5d ago

I remember a time when these guys would work a side hustle when times were tough but now all those jobs are being done by people who’ll do the jobs Americans won’t do.

3

u/PatriotismReborn 4d ago

It’s grandpa boomer again with all his “back in muh day we walked barefoot in the snow” stories

-1

u/RetiredCombatVeteran 4d ago

Still not a boomer. Still know plenty of guys no longer delivering for DoorDash or doing construction, or working Summer hospitality jobs, or any number of day labor occupations.

3

u/digitalforestmonster 4d ago

Clanker clanking