Former members of Congress can’t find jobs in the real world

It turns out, all the hubris and posing that comes with a fancy post on Capitol Hill doesn’t really get you very far in the job market. Slate’s Matthew Yglesias found that most members of Congress who were there between 2009 and 2011 and didn’t come back for another term are either working as lobbyists or are unemployed.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which oversees the database opensecrets.org, followed the 120 members of the 111th Congress who lost their seats in the 2011 mid-terms: 41 are out of a job, a fifth are lobbying a client, and a third are lobbying a firm.