Behind Low Unemployment Numbers, Americans Are Struggling to Find Stable Work, Afford Independence and Trust Politicians Who Don’t Reject The Status Quo
Dr. Jason Johnson recently said something on MS NOW that I want to emphasize: The economy people experience is often very different from the economy described in the news.
“This is the absolute worst economy I have ever experienced in my adult life,” said Johnson, a professor at HBCU Morgan State University.
Johnson described friends in engineering, environmental policy, Hollywood and journalism who have been unemployed for months. According to Johnson, these are experienced professionals who have worked their entire adult lives, survived the pandemic and suddenly find themselves unable to secure another position.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the official unemployment rate was 4.3% in May. More than one-quarter of unemployed Americans had been without work for at least six months.
Then there are his students. Many can find a job, but not what Johnson called a “move-out-of-the-house job.”
Part of the problem is that the job market is stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” freeze. Economic uncertainty, inflation and higher borrowing costs have made employers cautious, leaving job seekers competing longer for fewer realistic opportunities.
Also Read: Stanford Study Reveals AI Hiring Tools Disproportionately Screened Out Black And Asian Applicants
Recent college graduates are being hit particularly hard. Artificial intelligence is not sole reason for the hiring slowdown, but automation is absorbing or changing junior-level tasks that once helped young workers enter their professions.
Americans are also facing an affordability crisis or coined “boomcession” or “vibecession” driven by elevated inflation and prolonged utility shocks. A Harris Poll conducted for The Guardian found that 95% of U.S. adults believe the country is facing an affordability crisis.
At the same time, the rich are getting richer, and the U.S. economy is increasingly driven by wealthy Americans, who account for nearly half of all consumer spending.
Yet politicians continue offering distractions. As Johnson put it, they behave as though “an AI data center or a trans kid in the bathroom” will fix people’s financial situations.
That does not mean environmental or civil rights, racial justice and attacks on Black voting power no longer deserve priority. The problem is that politicians on both sides of the aisle have long manipulated social and cultural issues into spectacles while turning a blind eye to the material conditions facing everyday Americans.
“The degree to which Republicans and Democrats have failed to address any of these issues is why you have so many people angry right now,” Johnson said.
But a political shift may already be here.
After progressive and Democratic Socialist candidates swept key New York primaries, defeating establishment-backed incumbents, Bernie Sanders said the results showed voters rejecting business-as-usual politics and demanding a government that serves working people over wealthy donors.
America’s divisions are real, but they are also cultivated, amplified and monetized, especially through social media. These are not simply race wars. Increasingly, they are conflicts fueled by rising inequality between the rich and everyone else.
Trump-era public feuds, lawsuits, media censorship, wealthy political donors and unchecked corporate mergers continue shaping an economy that rewards the 1% at the expense of the other 99%.
As we overcome this unrealized power-distribution problem we must keep reminding one another that the power is supposed to belong to the people. New York showed what can happen when voters recognize their collective power and use it—not simply by expressing disapproval, but by rejecting the political establishment that ignored them.
