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I started typing, out of anger, deleted it, and let me just say this. What these graphs don't show is that job options are really bleak looking right now. Go on Craigslist, Monster, whatever, and take a look. The majority of jobs listed are all in high turnover industries or are 1099 positions, even the skilled jobs. It's baaad. What these graphs don't show is that there's all sorts of shenanigans going on, like there's a good chance that a job opening you see posted is people who used to fill that job got laid off and now have to compete to get it back. What these graphs don't show is that there are no guaranteed hours. There are no guaranteed safe work spaces. Employers know that their meager offerings are all that stand between you, red envelopes in the mail, and pay or vacate notices shamefully taped to your door. If you're a prole, chances are right now, you're being forced to choose between your dignity and safety or whatever meager pay you can collect.
I guess that between (e.g.) "5,000,000" being too gaudy and the public's near-total aversion to scientific notation, we wound up with y-axis oddities such as "5,000 thousand", where the "thousand" is only implied? Things are in such flux right now that our measurement timescales aren't capturing what's going on.
This is Daily Shot, a subscription service that I used to get through the WSJ. I now pay $100 a year for 150pp of graphs every goddamn morning. The sorts of people who pay $100 a year for 150pp of graphs every goddamn morning do everything per thousand. Because everything they buy is per hundred and even they think that 50,000 (00) is retarded.
You’re right that there’s a public aversion to it. But business speak isn’t very conducive to scientific notation either, you speak to the base unit you typically produce/measure in as that’s what’s more “meaningful”. Source: kleinbl00 but also literally me, who uses the “MM” abbreviation on axis more often than I would care to admit.