NOT EMPLOYED
Total Donated
$890,677,065
Contributions
9,883,772
Unique Donors
178,660
Top Employer
NOT EMPLOYED
Donors tagged NOT EMPLOYED on federal itemized receipts account for $890.7M, according to FEC.gov aggregates indexed by LobbyVault. The cluster is unusually receipt-heavy: 9,883,772 contributions from 178,660 donors. NOT EMPLOYED is a self-reported employer/occupation string, not a NAICS code, and it is stored separately from RETIRED, HOMEMAKER, and blank or 'requested' fields. High line count here is a disclosure pattern, not a statement about unemployment rates.
Key figures
- NOT EMPLOYED itemized receipts total $890.7M.
- 9,883,772 contribution lines come from 178,660 donors.
- The string is separate from RETIRED and from missing-employer codes.
- NOT EMPLOYED is FEC self-reported text, not a NAICS or BLS category.
A status phrase with a huge receipt count
Committees often record NOT EMPLOYED when a donor has no current payroll employer. Software defaults and volunteer forms spread the same three words across millions of schedule lines. LobbyVault's 9,883,772 contribution count is that paperwork volume. It is not the line count as if it were millions of people million unique people; the donor count is 178,660.
The dollar total, $890.7M, is large because the label is common, not because the FEC classified a labor-market sector. Treating NOT EMPLOYED as an 'industry' is an artifact of ranking the employer field. The underlying records remain individual contributions.
How this differs from RETIRED
RETIRED and NOT EMPLOYED can describe overlapping life situations, but they are different strings on the form. A donor who writes RETIRED does not appear in the $890.7M NOT EMPLOYED total. A donor who writes NOT EMPLOYED does not appear in the RETIRED total. LobbyVault does not recode one into the other.
Receipt intensity is the striking contrast in this row: nearly 9.9 million lines versus 178,660 donors. Many small, repeated online gifts can produce that shape. The aggregate does not publish average ticket size as a separate FEC field, so this page cites the three packet figures only.
Full analysis: NOT EMPLOYED on FEC schedules: $890.7M →
Questions
- How much federal money is labeled NOT EMPLOYED?
- Itemized receipts with the NOT EMPLOYED string sum to $890.7M on LobbyVault's FEC.gov rollup. That covers 9,883,772 contributions from 178,660 donors. RETIRED and HOMEMAKER are separate labels. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
- Why are there so many more contributions than donors?
- Each itemized gift is a line. The same 178,660 donors can generate many receipts, which is why the contribution count is 9,883,772. Online recurring gifts make this pattern common. The figures are disclosure counts, not a census of jobless adults.
- Is NOT EMPLOYED the same as unemployed in official statistics?
- No. It is FEC free text, not a BLS or NAICS classification. Donors choose the words, or software fills them. People who are retired, in school, or between jobs may use the same string. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
- Does this total include blank employer fields?
- No. Blank or 'information requested' rows are other industry labels. NOT EMPLOYED is the literal phrase on the schedule. The $890.7M figure is only that phrase. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
Industry labels come from FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Data from FEC.gov via LobbyVault.
Cycle-over-Cycle Trend
Top Donors
| # | Name | Total | Contributions | City / State | Occupation | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JUILFS, ELIZABETH S | $2,000 | 2 | CINCINNATI, OH | — | 1980 |
| 2 | BLUME, GARY (IK) | $1,000 | 1 | LOS ANGELES, CA | — | 1980 |
| 3 | MARIOTTA, JENNIE | $1,000 | 2 | BRONX, NY | — | 1980 |
| 4 | KRAMER, SANDRA | $600 | 1 | WASHINGOTN, DC | — | 1980 |
| 5 | MILLENDER, LOUISE | $500 | 1 | DETROIT, MI | — | 1980 |
| 6 | BAKER, JULIA | $250 | 1 | BALTIMORE, MD | — | 1980 |
| 7 | COLE, DOLLIE ANN | $250 | 1 | BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI | — | 1980 |
| 8 | LASHLEY, J FRED MRS | $200 | 1 | NORTHRIDGE, CA | — | 1980 |
Top Recipients
| # | Committee | Total | Contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MCSALLY PACC00666040 | $3,250 | 1 |
| 2 | DC REPUBLICAN PARTY FEDERAL ACCOUNTC00191288 | $3,000 | 2 |
| 3 | WINREDC00694323 | $2,991 | 2 |
| 4 | CHELLIE PINGREE FOR US SENATEC00366393 | $2,000 | 1 |
| 5 | BRNOVICH FOR SENATEC00781898 | $2,000 | 1 |
| 6 | INNER CIRCLE/NEW YORK RECEPTIONC00181552 | $2,000 | 2 |
| 7 | MARCO RUBIO FOR PRESIDENTC00458844 | $2,000 | 1 |
| 8 | TRUMP MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN COMMITTEEC00618371 | $1,000 | 1 |
| 9 | CROCKETT FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEEC00130047 | $1,000 | 1 |
| 10 | DRAFT KENNEDY SOUTHWEST STATES REGIONAL COMMITTEEC99001786 | $1,000 | 1 |
| 11 | PRELUDE TO VICTORY-CINCINNATIC00134841 | $1,000 | 2 |
| 12 | AMERICANS FOR AN EFFECTIVE PRESIDENCYC99002594 | $1,000 | 2 |
| 13 | WOMEN'S CAMPAIGN FUNDC00015024 | $600 | 1 |
| 14 | ACTBLUEC00401224 | $540 | 2 |
| 15 | FERNANDEZ FOR PRESIDENT COMMITTEE (FKA PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMMITTEE)C00084152 | $500 | 2 |
| 16 | MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEEC00031054 | $500 | 1 |
| 17 | MARY LANDRIEU FOR SENATE COMMITTEE INCC00317214 | $500 | 1 |
| 18 | DSCCC00042366 | $500 | 1 |
| 19 | XOCHITL FOR NEW MEXICOC00666149 | $500 | 1 |
| 20 | FRIENDS OF MIKE GRAVELC00027243 | $500 | 2 |
| 21 | CLINTON/GORE '96 GEN ELECTION LEGAL & ACCOUNTING COMPLIANCEC00305938 | $500 | 1 |
| 22 | DUKAKIS FOR PRESIDENT COMMITTEE, INCC00214213 | $500 | 1 |
| 23 | FREEZE VOTERC00169227 | $500 | 1 |
| 24 | NRSCC00027466 | $446 | 2 |
| 25 | BERNIE 2020C00696948 | $251 | 1 |