Another Anemic Jobs Report for April

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I was going to write a post last night promising not to make too big a deal out of today’s job numbers, no matter what they turned out to be, but I forgot. But I promise anyway.

As it happens, new jobs clocked in at 115,000 last month, only 25,000 above the number needed to keep up with population growth. The headline unemployment rate went down to 8.1%, but only because discouraged workers are leaving the labor force, so they aren’t counted in the official jobless numbers anymore. All in all, a pretty anemic report. My usual chart showing net new jobs is below.

On the bright side, employment numbers for February and March were revised upward by 53,000. This doesn’t change anything dramatically, but it’s certainly better than nothing. Bottom line: it’s only one month, but it sure looks like we’re living through an economy that just can’t quite pull itself into a serious recovery. Since the start of 2011, average net job growth has been 75,000 per month, with only a few months rising above that figure. That’s just not enough to make up for the staggering job losses of the Great Recession anytime soon.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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