words by Charles Brooks
In the seven months since May 1st, otherwise known as May Day and International Workers Day, workers in the US and around the world continued to experience increasing challenges to their personal household economy.
2025 comes to a close with one gloomy news report after another about the national and local economies. The crisis to the personal economy deepens with rising rates of unemployment, record layoffs, and increasing costs of living, including health-care.
2025 was a record year for layoffs - over one million layoffs, as the unemployment rate rose to its highest rates in four years since 2021.
Store closures reached nearly four thousand stores during 2025.
Federal workers stayed home as the government shutdown for over a month as families had to find a way to do without their SNAP benefits.
By August 2025, the Black unemployment rate had risen for four consecutive months reaching 8.3% in November, the highest reading since August 2021, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Economic data and news reports show that “affordability” is a real issue for working class folks only to be confronted by unresponsive elected officials. Take for example, members of Congress continuing to receive their salaries while laid off federal workers had to do without their paychecks. Or the recent $900 billion bill for defense and military passed by Congress and just signed into law.
Meanwhile, 2026 opens with people having to adjust their personal economies for new taxes, and fees scheduled to increase on January 1st, as millions are waiting on increases to their healthcare premiums,
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