Unemployment Is In Pretty Good Shape No Matter How You Look At It

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I have no special reason for posting this except that a few folks were discussing it in my Twitter feed. The proximate stimulus was an old piece by Gallup’s CEO claiming that the standard unemployment rate is a “lie” because it doesn’t count people who aren’t looking for work, or who are forced to work part time, etc. So here’s the U6 unemployment rate, which includes all those things:

Since 1994, when the series begins, the average U6 rate has been 10.7 percent. Today it’s 9.7 percent. But even at that, it’s about a point higher than the average during the last two expansions and two points higher than its best during the Bush era. In other words, it could still stand to drop another point or two, but it’s really in pretty good shape. Jobs are out there for most people who want them. Keep this in mind the next time you hear someone burbling about how unemployment is really way worse than the government is telling you.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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