How much have UNEMPLOYED-listed donors given federally?

LobbyVault attributes $21,382,057 to the UNEMPLOYED employer string, from 62,616 contributions and 2,545 donors. These are itemized individual receipts, not a BLS unemployment series and not a NAICS sector. Unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted from that figure. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Is UNEMPLOYED the same as NOT EMPLOYED in FEC data?

No. They are different self-reported strings. NOT EMPLOYED is a separate industry row with its own dollar total. A receipt stamped UNEMPLOYED is counted only here; a receipt stamped NOT EMPLOYED is counted only there. LobbyVault does not merge the two spellings.

Does this count every unemployed American who donated?

No. Only itemized federal receipts whose employer text grouped to UNEMPLOYED are in the $21,382,057 total. People who wrote other status words, left placeholders, or gave unitemized amounts are elsewhere or omitted. The 2,545 donor count is unique contributors in this string, not a labor-force headcount.

Why are there more contributions than donors?

The 62,616 contribution lines include repeat gifts from the same 2,545 people. Recurring itemized donations raise the receipt count without adding new unique donors. The FEC field records each itemized transaction, not a once-per-person census. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

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UNEMPLOYED

Total Donated

$21,382,057

Contributions

62,616

Unique Donors

2,545

Top Employer

UNEMPLOYED

Contributors who wrote UNEMPLOYED on federal itemized receipts account for $21,382,057, according to FEC.gov aggregates indexed on LobbyVault. That cluster is 62,616 contributions from 2,545 donors. UNEMPLOYED is a self-reported employer string, not a Bureau of Labor Statistics jobless count and not a NAICS industry. It sits apart from the much larger NOT EMPLOYED row, which uses different wording on the same FEC field.

Key figures

UNEMPLOYED as FEC employer text totals $21,382,057 from 2,545 donors.
62,616 contribution lines sit under that string — many repeats per person.
NOT EMPLOYED, RETIRED, and HOMEMAKER are separate FEC strings with their own pages.
The label is self-reported form text, not a NAICS industry or BLS jobless count.

A labor-status word ranked as an industry

LobbyVault’s industry table is a ranking of whatever text committees stored in the employer/occupation box. UNEMPLOYED is a status phrase, not a factory, a union, or a ticker. The $21,382,057 total is the sum of itemized individual gifts whose grouped employer text matches that word. It is not unemployment insurance outlays, not a Census labor-force estimate, and not a committee’s own PAC spending.

The same people could have written NOT EMPLOYED, RETIRED, HOMEMAKER, or left a committee’s best-efforts placeholder. Those strings are other rows. A donor who typed UNEMPLOYED on one receipt and RETIRED on a later receipt appears in each row only for the receipts that carry that exact stamp.

2,545 donors and 62,616 lines

The rollup counts 2,545 unique donors and 62,616 contribution lines totaling $21,382,057. That is roughly 25 itemized receipts per donor in this string, a paperwork pattern consistent with recurring online gifts rather than a one-time payroll deduction. The packet does not publish party share, cycle years, or a mean ticket; this page cites the three headline figures only.

Compared with NOT EMPLOYED’s separate, much larger dollar pile, UNEMPLOYED is a smaller spelling. Committees and form software do not force one phrase. LobbyVault does not recode UNEMPLOYED into NOT EMPLOYED, and it does not fold either into RETIRED.

Full analysis: UNEMPLOYED as FEC employer text: $21.4 million →

Questions

How much have UNEMPLOYED-listed donors given federally?: LobbyVault attributes $21,382,057 to the UNEMPLOYED employer string, from 62,616 contributions and 2,545 donors. These are itemized individual receipts, not a BLS unemployment series and not a NAICS sector. Unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted from that figure. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.
Is UNEMPLOYED the same as NOT EMPLOYED in FEC data?: No. They are different self-reported strings. NOT EMPLOYED is a separate industry row with its own dollar total. A receipt stamped UNEMPLOYED is counted only here; a receipt stamped NOT EMPLOYED is counted only there. LobbyVault does not merge the two spellings.
Does this count every unemployed American who donated?: No. Only itemized federal receipts whose employer text grouped to UNEMPLOYED are in the $21,382,057 total. People who wrote other status words, left placeholders, or gave unitemized amounts are elsewhere or omitted. The 2,545 donor count is unique contributors in this string, not a labor-force headcount.
Why are there more contributions than donors?: The 62,616 contribution lines include repeat gifts from the same 2,545 people. Recurring itemized donations raise the receipt count without adding new unique donors. The FEC field records each itemized transaction, not a once-per-person census. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer 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

1996 · $128,795 2000 · $85,635 2008 · $78,100 1998 · $65,190 2010 · $64,450 1994 · $60,800 2012 · $57,650 2004 · $57,410 1980 · $55,255 2002 · $47,600

UNEMPLOYED political contributions by election cycle.
Cycle	Total	Contributions	Donors
1980	$55,255	94	60
1982	$20,399	24	10
1984	$18,375	23	15
1986	$8,250	9	7
1988	$11,450	11	8
1990	$10,650	13	6
1992	$29,350	39	10
1994	$60,800	60	8
1996	$128,795	60	6
1998	$65,190	52	9
2000	$85,635	61	9
2002	$47,600	54	8
2004	$57,410	60	12
2006	$39,055	53	11
2008	$78,100	84	12
2010	$64,450	63	13
2012	$57,650	65	9
2014	$42,556	51	7

Top Donors

Top UNEMPLOYED donors ranked by total donated.
#	Name	Total	Contributions	City / State	Occupation	History
1	FOLLANSBEE, ROGER S	$5,000	1	LAFAYETTE HILL, PA	—	1980
2	FRAMPTON, RONALD L	$5,000	1	WESTMINSTER, MD	—	1980
3	CARTAN, HENRY MRS	$3,000	4	ATHERTON, CA	—	1980
4	MOTT, RUTH	$2,350	3	FLINT, MI	—	1980
5	DAUBER, CLARENCE A MRS	$2,000	7	BOSTON, MA	—	1980
6	LASKER, MARY MS	$2,000	2	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
7	MCKINLEY, SELENA	$2,000	4	MONTECITO, CA	—	1980
8	FOLLIS, R GWIN	$1,500	2	SAN FRANCISCO, CA	—	1980
9	HORMEL, WILMA T MRS	$1,450	3	FOREST CITY, IA	—	1980
10	DE BRETTEVILLE, ALEXANDER MRS	$1,200	2	SAN FRANCISCO, CA	—	1980
11	LOFTUS, PATRICIA OBRIEN	$1,000	1	SHREVEPORT, LA	—	1980
12	LEE, MAIKO J	$1,000	1	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
13	MACHARGO, DELHI R	$1,000	1	MIAMI BEACH, FL	—	1980
14	HUNTOON, HARRISON	$1,000	1	HOUSTON, TX	—	1980
15	HAAS, WALTER A SR	$1,000	1	SAN FRANCISCO, CA	—	1980
16	GRAHAM, HARDY MOORE MRS	$1,000	1	UNION CITY, TN	—	1980
17	MASSEY, ALYNE Q MRS	$1,000	1	NASHVILLE, TN	—	1980
18	MINKLER, EUGENE D JR	$1,000	1	LOS ANGELES, CA	—	1980
19	FRIEDMAN, PHYLLIS	$1,000	1	HILLSBORO, CA	—	1980
20	BURRUSS, HELEN C	$1,000	1	LYNCHBURG, VA	—	1980
21	CARENREICH, AMELIA	$1,000	2	LONG BEACH, NY	—	1980
22	BAGNAL, SUSIE L	$1,000	1	WINSTON-SALEM, NC	—	1980
23	BLOCK, ADALE G	$1,000	1	DEAL, NJ	—	1980
24	BRABHAM, CHARLES	$1,000	2	DALLAS, TX	—	1980
25	HIRSCH, MITCHELL	$875	3	CHICAGO, IL	—	1980
26	FREEMAN, LAWRENCE	$800	2	BALTIMORE, MD	—	1980
27	MCNEELY, LINDA	$775	1	WICHITA, KS	—	1980
28	LEEDS, ISABELLE MS	$750	2	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
29	FREED, ABIGAIL GARDINER	$750	2	WASHINGTON, DC	—	1980
30	CHICKERING, ALLEN L	$750	2	WOODSIDE, CA	—	1980
31	BROTZ, ESTHER E	$750	1	KOHLER, WI	—	1980
32	LEWIS, DIANA B	$750	2	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
33	BRUBAKER, LAUREN E	$720	3	MILWAUKEE, WI	—	1980
34	COOK, RANSOM M	$700	3	SAN FRANCISCO, CA	—	1980
35	COLE, ROBERT J	$700	2	CHICAGO, IL	—	1980
36	D'AMBROSIO, STEPHEN J	$650	1	FARMINGTON, CT	—	1980
37	BINNS, EDITH S MRS	$645	2	ESTES PARK, CO	—	1980
38	DUAY, GRANT III	$600	1	CRANFORD, NJ	—	1980
39	BROTZ, HELEN R	$600	1	SHEBOYGAN, WI	—	1980
40	EHRENREICH, AMELIA	$500	1	LONG BEACH, NY	—	1980
41	COOK, BILL F MRS	$500	1	SPRINGFIELD, TN	—	1980
42	HARRIS, LOUIS MRS	$500	1	NEW YORK, NY	—	1980
43	KHOLER, MARGARET	$500	1	KNOLER, WI	—	1980
44	BRENT, JANET	$500	1	WESTON, MA	—	1980
45	LEVITON, SHIRLEY	$500	1	—	—	1980
46	EISENBERG, ELLIOT R	$500	2	CHICAGO, IL	—	1980
47	CARR, STEVEN	$450	2	ST LOUIS, MO	—	1980
48	FORTUNE, RUSSELL MR	$450	2	ZIONSVILLE, IN	—	1980
49	COMPAGNO, VINCENT I	$450	2	SAN FRANCISCO, CA	—	1980
50	HOFFMAN, DAVID R	$405	1	MILWAUKEE, WI	—	1980

Top Recipients

Top political committees that received UNEMPLOYED donations.
#	Committee	Total	Contributions
1	ACTBLUEC00401224	$214,294	16
2	DSCCC00042366	$64,333	15
3	VOTERS FOR CHOICE/FRIENDS OF FAMILY PLANNINGC00109355	$62,350	1
4	DNC SERVICES CORP / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEEC00010603	$38,380	12
5	NRSC - NONFEDERALC60000148	$36,684	3
6	DC REPUBLICAN PARTY FEDERAL ACCOUNTC00191288	$36,650	1
7	WINREDC00694323	$20,401	8
8	DCCCC00000935	$20,027	11
9	NEW YORK SALUTE 1996 COMMITTEE-NON FEDERALC60000841	$20,000	1
10	OBAMA FOR AMERICAC00431445	$17,600	9
11	MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN PACC00580100	$16,837	6
12	THINK BIG AMERICA PACC00573519	$16,200	1
13	REPUBLICAN PRIMARY PACC00309195	$16,000	1
14	1995 REPUBLICAN SENATE-HOUSE DINNER/AKA THE PRESIDENT'S DINNERC00301010	$15,000	1
15	ILLINOIS LINCOLN PACC00350785	$14,900	1
16	FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE PACC00703975	$13,818	13
17	REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDAC00099259	$11,000	2
18	EMILYS LISTC00193433	$10,950	4
19	NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CONTRIBUTIONSC00002931	$10,650	23
20	REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEEC00003418	$10,433	10
21	MCCAIN VICTORY 2008C00448498	$10,000	1
22	HILLARY FOR AMERICAC00575795	$9,220	4
23	HARRIS VICTORY FUNDC00744946	$8,747	7
24	NATIONAL CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEEC00024687	$8,745	7
25	HILLARY VICTORY FUNDC00586537	$8,735	3