The latest U.S. jobs report puts unemployment at a low 5.9 percent. But this number doesn’t reflect what’s really going on in millions of people’s lives.

One in four blacks and one in six Latinos under the age of 25 can’t find a job

It’s not just criminal records. The job market for recent high school graduates is shaped profoundly by race and gender.

This crisis seems to be missing something that its scale would indicate is needed: a sense of national urgency about the dire state of unemployment.

The reason why the unemployment rate seems to be the best since 2008 is that so many Americans have given up looking for work.

And may further wreck the whole economy in the process.

Employers are increasingly skirting the law with hiring bans on people with criminal records–a trend that has been devastating for black and Latino workers.

Another example of the massive gap between reality and the discussion in the Beltway.

The state has spent thousands of dollars to prevent 23 applicants that tested positive for drug use from joining the program.

Colorlines’ D.C. reporter/blogger Shani O. Hilton will spend the summer blogging out the institutional and political hurdles, and the overlooked solutions.

While official stats say that unemployment is at a two-year low, that number doesn’t take into account people who’ve simply given up.

It’s no secret that America’s safety net is quickly evaporating.

In California, Asian Americans may suffer relatively low rates of unemployment, but a surprising number of them tend to stay stuck in that hole for a long time.

There’s a physical risk in believing the hype.

Labor hopes to make the unemployed their own political interest group.

Democrats and Republicans spend the congressional recess getting ready to blame each other for the recession that will surely still be with us come November.

But mind the fine print: It’s temp work with barely legal pay, perfectly legal overtime exemption and you’ll probably get heat stroke.