The ActBlue headlines are wildly dumb, but I did a bit of digging just to see what was going on there. In reality <5k transactions (not donors) where the contributor was listed as "unemployed." Of those, just 69 were amounts of $100 or more. 15 $200+. 8 individuals gave $1k+.
You get a similar number of hits for "unemployed" in the occupation field, but likewise mostly tiny amounts. And of the 5 large transactions, four are the same person.
"Not employed" is the motherload here, which is triggered based on the binary radio button on the front end asking "Are you employed? Y/N" Figure that's capturing mostly retirees, which themselves make up another 4M as a self-IDed group. More high dollar giving, as you'd expect.
Why doesn't WinRed have a comparable number? Probably because they don't have the same binary. Instead, you can click "I'm Retired" to bypass the required employer/occupation field. So similarly situated donor just coded differently. (I will say I prefer the WinRed version.)
On AB, if you answer "no," that's it, you don't enter anything else, and you're listed as not employed. If you select yes, it provides the employer/occupation field, and steers you back to "no" if you don't have anything to enter. Retirees split pretty evenly on how to respond.
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