Business & Finance

Economic research institute reports functional unemployment rate of 24.9% for July 2026

The alternative metric accounts for underemployment and workers earning below a designated living wage.

Updated Sep 2, 2026 · 04:18 UTC1 reports

The short version

The True Rate of Unemployment stood at 24.9% in July 2026, compared to the official federal headline rate of 4.1%.
The alternative metric tracks workers who lack full-time employment, are unemployed, or earn less than a living wage benchmark of $26,000 annually.
Significant disparities exist across demographics, with functional unemployment disproportionately impacting female workers and individuals without a high school diploma.

The True Rate of Unemployment was calculated at 24.9% for July 2026, contrasted with the federal headline unemployment rate of 4.1%.[Hacker News]
The metric defines functional unemployment as labor force participants who want full-time work of at least 35 hours weekly but lack it, are completely unemployed, or earn under a pre-tax annual living wage threshold of $26,000 in 2025 dollars.[Hacker News]
The rate varied across racial demographics, measured at 27.3% for Black workers, 26.7% for Hispanic workers, and 23.8% for White workers.[Hacker News]
The metric showed a gender disparity, recording a 31.0% rate for female workers compared to 19.5% for male workers.[Hacker News]
Functional unemployment rates by education level ranged from 50.3% for those without a high school diploma to 12.8% for those holding an advanced degree.[Hacker News]

The data relies on specific benchmark definitions for a living wage ($26,000 in 2025 dollars) and functional unemployment established by the research institute rather than official government metrics.[Hacker News]