Disabled People Are the Canaries in the Coal Mine
The disabled community has responded to the adversities they face by organizing for legal rights that protect their autonomy and access to public life. But these rights are increasingly under attack.
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Along with Friday's readings of 247,000 jobs lost in July (far less than expected), and the slight movement downward in the official unemployment rate to 9.4% from 9.5%, the Bureau of Labor statistics also released the less publicized U5 and U6 readings, which attempt to flesh out the woefully incomplete (the official figure doesn't include so-called "discouraged workers," who aren't actively looking for jobs, etc) official number, by taking into account various categories of underemployment (part-time workers looking for full-time work, etc.). U5 came in at 10.7% and U6 at 16.3%. It should be mentioned that both these figures represent improvements upon June's readings of 10.8% and 16.5%, respectively. Here's a link to the BLS numbers, which also provides short summaries of the different measures.