{"id":20890,"date":"2026-06-15T07:33:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/?p=20890"},"modified":"2026-06-15T07:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:33:35","slug":"media-it-is-either-the-worst-of-times-or-the-best-of-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2026\/06\/15\/media-it-is-either-the-worst-of-times-or-the-best-of-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: It is either the worst of times or the best of times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is true?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of\u00a0<strong>May 2026<\/strong>, there were\u00a0<strong>162.77 million<\/strong>\u00a0employed persons in the United States, following a record high of\u00a0<strong>163.99 million<\/strong>\u00a0in December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Steady Growth<\/strong>: The workforce expanded from approximately\u00a0<strong>137 million<\/strong>\u00a0in 2000 to over\u00a0<strong>160 million<\/strong>\u00a0by the early 2020s, driven by shifts toward service and technology sectors.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pandemic Impact<\/strong>: Employment dipped notably to\u00a0<strong>148 million<\/strong>\u00a0in 2020 due to the pandemic, but recovered rapidly, reaching\u00a0<strong>161 million<\/strong>\u00a0by 2023.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recent Stability<\/strong>: Since 2023, the number of employed persons has remained consistently high, hovering between\u00a0<strong>161 million and 164 million<\/strong>, indicating a stable labor market despite fluctuations in quit rates and hiring activity.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-384.png?wsr\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20891\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-384.png 680w, https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-384-600x452.png 600w, https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-384-359x270.png 359w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US has the highest number of employed people in history or its the worst of times and no one can find a job. Which is it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,29,30,39,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-media","category-media-propaganda","category-fake-news","category-fictional-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20892,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20890\/revisions\/20892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}