Bernie Sanders, jobs report spark online frenzy: “Workers deserve dignity”

As the labor conversation in the U.S. shifts from The Great Resignation to other separation phenomena, including “quiet quitting” and “quiet firing,” employment statistics remain relatively stable.

Following initial, pandemic-related spikes in joblessness, which saw unemployment reach an all-time high of 14.70 percent in April 2020, rates have steadily decreased.

And according to the most recent employment report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment fell to 3.5 percent in September, matching July for the lowest mark in 50 years.

However, low unemployment rates don’t make up the entire employment picture or tell the entire story for employees in the United States.

“The September employment report portrays stability in the job market with the unemployment rate slipping back to the historic low of 3.5 [percent],” Mark Hamrick, BankRate’s Washington bureau chief, said. “At the same time, hiring cooled during the month.”

Additionally, Hamrick acknowledged the mismatch between the number of job openings, 10.1 million, and the new number of unemployed, 5.8 million, as well as the glaring disparity between a 5 percent growth in wages over the last year and 8.3 percent inflation rate.

“It will likely be some time before a broad measure of wage growth catches up with inflation,” Hamrick told Newsweek. “This is among the reasons why we see the savings rate shrinking and increased reliance on credit, as if to plug the gap between spending and income.”

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime advocate for workers’ rights, also called attention to the growing gap between spending and income, just one day before the September 2022 employment report was published on October 7.

“No full-time worker in this country should be living in poverty,” Sanders tweeted on October 6. “None.”

Racking up nearly 50,000 likes, Sanders’ tweet sheds light on an issue plaguing many living in the U.S.

Although costs have risen across all industries, gas and groceries have both served as hot-button topics throughout 2022, and for good reason.

While prices at the pump reached record levels in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in September that the cost of food—both at home and away from home—is putting major pressure on bank accounts across the country.

From August 2021 to August 2022, grocery prices rose 13.5 percent, marking the largest 12-month increase since 1979. During that same period, prices for food away from home rose 8 percent, the largest over-the-year percentage increase since 1981.

With the cost of necessities at record levels, even workers with full-time jobs are struggling to make ends meet, either living at the poverty line, or below it.

Throughout a viral Reddit thread responding to the statement that no full-time worker should be impoverished, titled “Living wages now! Workers deserve dignity!” Many echoed the same sentiment, but remained adamant that nobody, regardless of employment status, should be forced to live under intolerable conditions.

“Bernie’s point is a great talking point to lead in with,” Redditor u/CrackTheSkye1990 commented. “Of course no human being, regardless of working status, should be poor, starving, and homeless.”

“Nobody should live in poverty, regardless of their ability/willingness to work,” Redditor u/CommercialBox4175 agreed. “The disabled who cannot work have a right to a decent standard of living as well.”

In the thread’s top comment, Redditor u/Brilliant_Plant2976 took issue with the current poverty parameters in the U.S., highlighting the fact that a large number of full-time employees who are not considered impoverished are still struggling financially.

“You need to have a better definition of the term poverty,” they commented. “Someone could be just above the line and still not making it.”

Newsweek has reached out to Sanders’ office for comment.