Fact-check: “Are there more people unemployed now than during Covid and the Great Recession”
Verdict: False (82% confidence)
The BLS unemployment rate and unemployed-persons count — the standard measure of unemployment — show current unemployment is well below both COVID-19 and Great Recession peaks. The recent headlines claiming record highs are about 'not in the labor force' (NILF), a fundamentally different metric that includes retirees, students, and caregivers who are not looking for work and are NOT counted as unemployed. The BLS unemployment rate peaked at 14.7% in April 2020 (COVID) and 10.0% in October 2009…
This fact-check was conducted by SpinkillerAI, a non-partisan AI-powered accountability platform.
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