"National unemployment was 7.9% in this month's Rasmussen Reports Real Unemployment update, down slightly from 8.2% last month and significantly more than the 4.2% rate officially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today," tweets Rasmussen Reports.

The 4.2 percent figure, which Rasmussen Reports cites in the preceding tweet, is the Unemployment Situation for July 2025 as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment has been above 4 percent, as recorded by the BLS, since May of 2024, before which time it stayed below 4 percent from February of 2022 until April of 2024.

That may not be cause for concern, but it should not be ignored. When combined with the persistent high inflation that the nation has experienced for more than four years, it can begin to accumulate. Inflation has not dipped below 2 percent, according to Consumer Price Index numbers published monthly, since February of 2021. The Federal Reserve, which has "stable prices" as part of its dual mandate, holds that 2 percent is its "longer-run objective" with respect to inflation. So there is a disconnect because inflation has, not to be redundant, remained above 2 percent for over four years. That, together with an unemployment rate that just will not drop down to more comfortable levels, begins to amount to a situation that has reasonable cause for concern or uneasiness, at the very least.

Put another way, the reservoir of economic balls of positive sunshine that so-called "bullish" economists might offer seems to be more difficult to find of late. That is not to suggest that there is no positive economic activity going on. There, no doubt, are some encouraging signs on the horizon. But the data points do not give off the warm fuzzies. There exists a sense that things are just not all the way right or perhaps even uncomfortable economically.