This Week in Five Stats — Jun 9, 2026
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Five numbers we chased down because they're interesting first and useful second — a diamond market in freefall, $70 billion the government can't manage to give back, and, summer being summer, the economics of the scoop.
Jun 9, 2026
A One-Carat Lab-Grown Diamond Now Sells for Under $900 — Down Roughly 74% Since 2020 and 80-90% Cheaper Than a Mined Stone — Which Is Why Nearly Half of American Engagement Rings Now Skip the Mine Entirely
A one-carat lab-grown diamond goes for around $892 wholesale today, down about 74% from 2020 and running 80 to 90% below a mined stone of the same grade — and roughly 45% of U.S. engagement rings now use one. The fallout has gutted the company that taught the world a diamond is forever: Anglo American has written down De Beers by $6.8 billion over three years and has been trying, so far without luck, to unload it.
Source: BriteCo / Edahn Golan Diamond Research / Anglo American 2025 results
A Record 488,000 Americans Are Now Working Two Full-Time Jobs at Once — Double the Number in 2020 and Past the Dot-Com-Era Peak — Part of Roughly 8.8 Million People Holding Multiple Jobs, Near the Most Ever
The number of people clocking two full-time jobs simultaneously hit an all-time high of 488,000 late last year, double the 2020 figure and above the previous peak set back in 2000, with total multiple-jobholders sitting near a record 8.8 million. In an economy that keeps looking strong on paper, that's a quiet tell about how many households can't make the math work on a single paycheck.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Current Population Survey (Table A-9)
State Governments Are Sitting on About $70 Billion in Unclaimed Property Belonging to Roughly 1 in 7 Americans — Old Paychecks, Forgotten Deposits, Dormant Accounts — and They Returned Just $4.49 Billion of It Last Year
States are holding an estimated $70 billion in unclaimed property — uncashed checks, abandoned brokerage accounts, security deposits from apartments long since moved out of — that belongs to about 33 million people, or one in seven Americans. They handed back only $4.49 billion of it last year, which means there's a real chance some of that pile has your name on it; a free search at unclaimed.org takes about a minute.
Source: National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA)
Americans Throw Out Roughly $762 Worth of Food per Person Every Year — Nearly 29% of the Entire Food Supply, or $380 Billion in Groceries and Restaurant Meals That Never Get Eaten
The U.S. tossed about $380 billion of food in 2024 — close to 29% of everything in the food supply, and around $762 a head once you split it across the population. With prices where they are, that amounts to a national habit of buying dinner and then quietly composting it.
Source: ReFED — Progress on the Plate: 2026 U.S. Food Waste Report
On a Lighter Note: The Average American Eats About 4 Gallons of Ice Cream a Year — Nearly 19 Pounds — Feeding a U.S. Market Worth Almost $20 Billion, With Sales That Reliably Spike About 7% in a Heat Wave
Summer's here and June happens to be National Dairy Month, so consider the scoop: the typical American puts away roughly 4 gallons — about 19 pounds — of ice cream a year, propping up a U.S. market worth nearly $20 billion. Sales jump around 7% whenever a heat wave rolls through, which makes ice cream one of the few things in this economy that gets more popular the worse the weather behaves.
Source: International Dairy Foods Association — Ice Cream Sales & Trends
Sources
- 1.BriteCo / Edahn Golan Diamond Research / Anglo American 2025 results
- 2.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Current Population Survey (Table A-9)
- 3.National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA)
- 4.ReFED — Progress on the Plate: 2026 U.S. Food Waste Report
- 5.International Dairy Foods Association — Ice Cream Sales & Trends