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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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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