The U.S. Labor Department August jobs report for August showed overall U.S. job growth at a standstill.

According to the report, nearly every category of worker – adult men, adult women, teenagers, whites, blacks, Hispanics – showed little or no change in employment for August.

One worker category that did experience growth was involuntary part-time workers, those working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job or because their once full-time hours were cut. Involuntary workers added 400,000 to its ranks, growing the number of Americans forced to work part-time to 8.8 million workers.

With the grim outlook of not only finding work but finding enough work, many media outlets are spotlighting the stories of the unemployed and underemployed.

On the same day as the release of the August jobs report, the New York Times ran a article aptly-titled “Journey of a Jobless Man”, recounting the cycle of disappointment and hope for Frederick Deare, a 53 year old forklift driver toiling through 290 days of unemployment.

In mid-August, the Washington Post launched an interactive project called Help Wanted, anchored by six diverse unemployed people blogging about the emotional and professional struggles of looking for work. Help Wanted also allows readers to submit video and audio testimonials to questions like “What did you tell your kids when you lost your job?”

An interview with an unemployed American talking to RT America earlier this month about his struggle to be hired for work of any kind, including fast food, emphasizes the bleak job situation the unemployed face.

These stories vividly show the plight of the unemployed in names and faces rather than just as statistics.

New Headline: Documenting unemployment stories in the media