July’s weak jobs report caught economists and policymakers off guard, but it likely came as no surprise to millions of American workers. They’ve long been living the reality behind the statistics — earning a paycheck yet unable to afford rent, chipping away at student debt while locked in a dead-end job, or working overtime but still trapped in poverty.

The monthly jobs report has always been an important, but limited, economic indicator. It tells us how many people are employed and how many jobs were created — information that’s crucial for decision-making around government services, interest rates, hiring plans and more. But the real story of our labor market is in the daily struggle of workers who knew their economic prospects were deteriorating long before any government statistician measured it.

Looking at a broader set of data, the precarity of the job market becomes obvious. Despite supposedly robust employment, 54 percent of U.S. adults don’t have enough savings to cover three months of expenses, with almost a quarter having no emergency savings at all. Less than half of entry-level workers report confidence in their job stability, the lowest level since data collection began in 2016. Employee engagement is close to a 10-year low. Women are exiting the workforce in droves, while Black unemployment

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