The US government’s data released on August 1st showed a month-over-month increase in unemployment rates in July, with non-farm payrolls significantly weaker than market expectations. The newly added jobs in May and June were drastically revised from the previously announced 144,000 and 147,000 to 19,000 and 14,000, respectively, signaling a cooling job market and a rise in jobless individuals. Apart from the official ‘explicit’ unemployment data, a bestselling book this year has revealed another form of ‘implicit’ unemployment faced by the American people – functional unemployment, where individuals have jobs yet struggle to afford basic living costs.Over the past few years, reports on the real unemployment rate by the Ludwig Institute have shown that the true situation of functional unemployment in the US economy is far more severe than what official unemployment rates reflect.
