Government officials are gushing over the state of the U.S. economy, pointing to June’s unemployment rate of just 4.2%, the lowest in a year. But this figure disguises the reality facing the working class today. Millions face huge challenges in getting and keeping a decent job, as well as from rising prices on all kinds of basic necessities, from groceries to rent. Today’s capitalist economic and social crisis is deepening.
The number of workers who have been unable to find a job and are no longer counted as part of the workforce jumped by 832,000 in June, bringing the increase since the beginning of the year to 2.5 million. While official unemployment figures drop or remain steady, the number of workers excluded from the count is rising rapidly.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of jobs grew by 57,000 in June. But a more accurate survey, which actually counts the number of those working that month, said it dropped by 507,000.
The share of workers in the U.S. who are part of the workforce — that is, who hold down a job or are looking for work — dropped to 61.5% in June, the lowest since March 2021, during the COVID pandemic. If you exclude the decline in jobs during COVID, the drop in the percentage who hold jobs is the lowest in 50 years.
The biggest plunge in employment was for workers between the ages of 25 and 54, the heart of the working class in the U.S. Meanwhile, some 2 million workers — 27.3% of all those on government unemployment roles in June — haven’t been able to find work for 27 weeks or more, and their benefits have run out.
‘Groceries are unaffordable’
High prices on just about everything are hitting the working class hard. “Two-thirds of Americans find groceries unaffordable,” the Washington Post reported July 16. For working-class households with incomes below $50,000, it’s 82%.
Food prices have risen more than 18% since the beginning of 2022, and for many items, including beef, coffee, tomatoes, and fresh fruits and vegetables, it’s much higher.
Today’s price hikes encompass a broad variety of basic necessities, including transportation, housing, medical care, childcare and much more.
Just in the last 18 months electric utilities have raised their rates by 18%, and even higher in some areas where big tech companies are building data-center hotspots that siphon off billions of kilobytes.
Home prices and apartment rents are soaring. The median price for a house hovers above $400,000, and mortgage rates, currently over 6.7%, put them out of reach of many young people. Plans to move out on their own and raise a family have to be put aside.
Rents are at record highs. The median rent in May for a one-bedroom apartment in New York City hit $4,000. Just five years ago it was under $2,500.
Many young people find themselves having to move back in with their parents, other relatives or friends. Last year, 49% of adults under age 30 lived with a parent, up 12% from 2019. Nearly one-third of those adults were 25 or older.
Millions who took out student loans to further their education are saddled with unpayable debts, boosted by huge interest bills, a boon for the big banks. Nationwide, borrowers who have defaulted on their student loans jumped by more than 4.2 million in the last year.
‘I’m not going to pay anymore’
Barbara Howaniec, a 63-year-old psychiatric nurse practitioner from Auburn, Maine, is one of those who defaulted. She had borrowed some $62,000 to get a master’s degree from New York University, graduating in 2001. Twenty-five years later, she owes $67,000 with interest, a higher debt than she began with!
Even though she was making regular payments under an income-based plan, government authorities have informed her that she now needs to make 355 more payments, which means she won’t have her debt paid off until she’s 91 years old. “I had already paid what I borrowed. I’m like, no, I’m not going to pay anymore,” she told The Associated Press.
Another reflection of the social crisis is the ongoing decline in birthrates. The U.S. birth rate fell to 1.57 births per woman last year. Anything below 2.1 means the population will decline.
With this declining number of children, more and more public schools have shut down. More than 1,000 were shuttered in 2025-26. Nationwide, school closures have spiked 35% over the past four years.
The federal government now reports that Social Security will run out of funds six years from now. It has no plan to remedy this disaster, which means by 2032 some 70 million people will see their benefits slashed by 22%. This deadline is a year earlier than the Congressional Budget Office projected last year.
Forty percent of us on Social Security rely on it for half or more of our income, while about 14% depend on it for 90%, the AARP reports.
It will take an organized fight by the labor movement to take on this looming disaster.