A new report by the United States Department of Agriculture states that 46 million Americans received benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in May of this year. More from GOOD:

That’s a record high, not to mention a 12 percent jump from last year at this time and a 34 percent jump from 2009. For context, this means that if you add up the residents of all 10 of America’s most populous cities, you’d still need about 22 million people to get the number we’ve now got on SNAP.

The report preceded S&P’s downgrade of American credit, as well as a recent, unimpressive government jobs report for the month of July. President Obama addressed the nation this afternoon, calling for Congress to extend paycheck tax cuts and the current unemployment benefits package another year. Arguably, the forecast seems grim. Best of luck, postgrads.