(Dallas Express)—Nearly a quarter of Americans are “functionally unemployed,” according to a new report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP).
The report revealed a True Rate of Unemployment (TRU) of 24.3% in May 2025, a slight increase from 24.2% in April. This contrasts with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ official unemployment rate of 4.2%, which has remained unchanged over the same period.
LISEP’s TRU measures the percentage of the U.S. labor force without full-time jobs of at least 35 hours per week who want them, those without jobs, or those earning less than $25,000 annually before taxes — classified as “functionally unemployed.”
“The percentage of American workers unable to secure full-time, above-poverty-wage jobs continues to tick upward,” the report stated.
Unlike the BLS rate, which counts someone as employed if they worked one hour in the prior two weeks, LISEP’s measure aims to capture labor market nuances, including those in poverty-wage jobs or seeking full-time work.
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