According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rates have not shifted much in recent years. The current unemployment rate is reported as being 4.2%—just a slight increase from the 4% it hovered around between 2022 and 2024. But according to a new report, another measure of unemployment is much higher, and steadily growing.

The April report, which comes from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), a nonprofit that produces original economic research, documents what it calls the “true rate” of unemployment. That rate refers to “functional unemployment,” which takes into account those who are job-seeking yet unable to find work, as well as those with full-time jobs but whose earnings put them below the poverty line (under $25,000 a year).

The functional unemployment rate has risen for three consecutive months and is currently 24.4%. That means about one in four U.S. adults are considered functionally unemployed.