Brittany Luce

Looking still positive, but not...

really blockbuster numbers.

And at the same time, you're not seeing a huge increase in the unemployment rate.

And so that's why people call this, you know, a low, higher, low fire.

Practically what that means is that if you have a job, you're probably okay.

And that if you're looking for a job, then it probably feels really lousy to be out in the labor market right now looking for a job.

Things are just kind of stuck.

Now, one thing I'll note is that we keep hearing this statistic that unemployment is low.

As true as that number may be, I still feel like so much conversation in the media, on social media, with people I know is really focused on unemployment and underemployment.

I feel like a lot of people are experiencing a really tough time.

Mm-hmm.

I think that when you hear the headline unemployment figure, that is the broadest possible measure of unemployment.

And it's when you drill down into some more specific categories of how workers are doing that it becomes clear why certain workers are feeling perhaps worse than others.

And so, for example, you know, the black unemployment rate, it's always historically been higher than the mainline unemployment rate.

And because you had all of the public sector cuts from Doge at the beginning of last year, Black workers are kind of disproportionately represented in the public sector workforce.

And so that's why you're seeing numbers for Black unemployment much higher than the baseline unemployment rate right now.

Also, this kind of low hire economy is particularly hard on young workers, early career workers.

Mm-hmm.

They're having a much harder time getting their foot in the door in a labor market where, like Nitish said, there's a lot of caution and there's not a lot of willingness to spend the resources to train someone who is maybe new and has less experience.

And so if you look at the unemployment rate for people between 20 and 24 years old who have college degrees, it's up more than a full percentage point from last year.