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[–] 10 points 1 day ago* (2 children)

"The unemployment rate is low by historical standards..."

What if I told you the unemployment rate is a bullshit number tracked by bullshit people with bullshit jobs?

The only people counted as unemployed are those who both check in regularly with unemployment and either are actively looking for work or expecting to be rehired after layoffs.

Even if you are looking for work, if you aren't actively checking in with unemployment, you aren't being counted. And who the fuck wastes time with reporting to unemployment when they have no unemployment benefits to claim because they either never had them or ran out of them?

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  • [–] 2 points 23 hours ago (1 child)

    A common misconception. Below quotes are from https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm, bolding mine. Also, the BLS report has six different measures of unemployment counting various different groups. The "headline number" of U3 counts only people actively looking for work, but other measures count people who want jobs but aren't looking and people who work part time but want to be full time. Labor force participation is also in there, counting people even if they don't want to find a job. It's all reported!

    Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the government uses the number of people collecting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under state or federal government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits run out, and many more are not eligible at all or delay or never apply for benefits. So, quite clearly, UI information cannot be used as a source for complete information on the number of unemployed.

    Because unemployment insurance records relate only to people who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to count every unemployed person each month, the government conducts a monthly survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month since 1940, when it began as a Work Projects Administration program. In 1942, the U.S. Census Bureau took over responsibility for the CPS. The survey has been expanded and modified several times since then. In 1994, for instance, the CPS underwent a major redesign in order to computerize the interview process as well as to obtain more comprehensive and relevant information.

    There are about 60,000 eligible households in the sample for this survey. This translates into approximately 110,000 individuals each month, a large sample compared to public opinion surveys, which usually cover fewer than 2,000 people. The CPS sample is selected so as to be representative of the entire population of the United States

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  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

    I have no confidence in these kinds of surveys. How Are people contacted? What kind of person trusts the purpose of these surveys? I couldn’t find anything in that mountain of text saying how they contact these people. Do you know how many people don’t pick up the phone anymore? Do they only call landlines? Do they mail it out?

    Also, 110,000 people out of (2020 census) 331 million citizens, 258.3 million adults. That’s 0.04% of adults surveyed monthly.

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  • [–] 94 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    This is every oligarch's wet dream: People accepting anything to do the job, and can't quit either. The invisible shackles of Capitalism.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    That only lasts so long.

    if I'm willing to do anything for money, then I'm willing to sabotage your company for your competition.

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  • [–] 66 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Off to look for new jobs with my briefcase full of jizzum

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  • [–] 38 points 2 days ago (8 children)

    Next month I will have been unemployed for 2 years… this fucking sucks.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    Good gravy, really? What industry do you work in?

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  • [–] 11 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    Yep, since November 2024. Web development.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    How are you surviving? If I don't have job for more than 4 months I won't have a place to live. I can't imagine 2 yrs

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    What's been the biggest issue for you finding one? I would have thought web dev would have something to offer.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    I think it’s a numbers game right now, I have been able to find less than half the number of jobs to apply for as the last time I was in a long term search (though not this long) and the people I talk to say they are getting an order of magnitude more applications many of which are clearly AI generated. Then the jobs I do find are half the time fake themselves or are just posted for some bureaucratic reason and aren’t an actual opening.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 days ago

    Breaking news. No one has a job anymore. Anyway, pay us money to read about it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    It's tumbling down tumbling down tumbling doooown~🎶

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago

    Started listening to a YouTube channel on economics and this guy was straightforwardly taking the unemployment number at face value, not mentioning that the true unemployment rate might be significantly higher, including people who have given up looking for work.

    I think it might be a psyop.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    But I heard the economy is amazing.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    The economy is amazing, tremendous if I must say, the economy is doing great in this great economic time because of my greatness at economics.

    • DJT, probably.
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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago

    One of the biggest issues I've noticed is that the process is broken. I've posted this before; but having to use a website to apply if not a cr'application and to have to take a psychological evaluation, that some stupid bloke made, just to get an interview is asinine.

    Then the expectation of blowing smoke up someone ass in an interview is ridiculous. Why do you want to work here? For the money dipshit, I could think of a million better things to do morons. Don't get me started on anything tech or repair related; please *demonstrate your skills * fix this shit for free.

    Anything kind of work is just that, work.

    Also the rampant job scams are at an all time high. At this point, leave a voice mail. I won't respond to texts, it's a security liability.

    We really need to go back to using paper applications and faxes.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    Now now, I hear there's a promising career path with Crack Cocaine Manufacturing/Sales.

    Never give up!

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  • [–] 15 points 2 days ago (1 child)
  • It’s rarely been THIS harder for people to find new jobs

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