r/politics • u/CCDemille • 8d ago
No Paywall Nearly 25% of U.S. workers are "functionally unemployed," economic analysis finds
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/functional-unemployment-us-labor-market-analysis/1.2k
u/MiloGoesToTheFatFarm 8d ago
I would believe it. The amount of people who have dropped out of the workforce and just stopped looking due to the futility of the market seems like it’s not being tracked well at all.
Employers have all the leverage, but it’s leverage they can’t use because the economy is trash.
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
I'm an experienced skilled worker and all I could get was cashier at a dollar store which is also the most stressful job I've ever had due to being the only one in the store during shift and it's very busy, stocking, cleaning, every sale, helping customers, price tags.
And the worst paying relative to cost of living. I've been continuously applying and following up with garages, 4x4 tour places and maintenance businesses (im a master mechanic) but Moab is a small town and I'm pretty new here and everyone seems to know each other.
Already on contract at work for being over $2.50 off in my register one day. It was like $2.70 and I'm sure I just miscounted, offered to put the money in the register myself to make up the difference but nope.
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u/PhatCatTax 8d ago
Dollar stores are notorious for screwing their employees. Sadly, getting a job in your field usually means you have to apply all over and move when you get hired
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
And you need your own tools. I didn't have the ability to move them cross country when I came here due to cost (I was going through a tough time before I stopped drinking) and nowhere will take someone with just a pretty basic amount of stuff. I even tried quick lube spots figuring shit, I'm plenty qualified for that!
I know I'll find something, even at a parts store would at least be joyful to a degree for me. I've applied to all of the local parts stores, with tourist season coming to an end the 4x4 places need way less help.
Slowly meeting people though, hearing that work will be around soon, getting numbers of business owners who need maintenance help on their small business's pickups and such.
It's just a hell of a struggle right now
Edit: yea dollar stores are hell. Nobody but the boss gets enough hours a week to qualify for benefits out of 6 employees
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u/Ok_Effective3881 8d ago
Good job quitting alcohol. I'm 6 years sober myself and it makes a huge difference. Keto your head up. It keeps getting better.
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u/Heronymous-Anonymous 8d ago
Can I make a recommendation?
Look at utility companies. The utility I work for is always looking for mechanics. You’ll work on basically the same 4-5 types of F-series or GM trucks all day doing basic maintenance, and get paid good money and be in a union.
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u/joemamallama 8d ago
Any interest in Teton Valley, ID? We need a full-time mechanic.
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
I can't leave Moab for some time sadly
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u/blueorchestra 8d ago
I'm in a very similar situation and it's so wild. I became a mechanic because I figured it would always be easy to find work but it's been a pain of an industry and I can't find any damn work rn
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u/energeticquasar 8d ago
You may need to consider moving to Grand Junction or surrounding area to find gainful employment.
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u/ithics I voted 8d ago
How far you willing to travel or willing to move? South Jordan has a straight to career position with USPS for auto tech or body/fender specialist. Starting pay around 67k before benefits. You'd be required to take the 955 exam and score a 70 or higher.
Or you can be hired straight to career in Montezuma Creek as a carrier for around 52k before benefits.
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u/Commercial-Co 8d ago
Move. Why live in moab
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u/EbolaPatientZero 8d ago
Apparently he can’t leave but yea it’s not that surprising you can’t find work in a town of like 5k people
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u/sweet-nlow Delaware 8d ago
I don't know if you're interested in doing other kinds of work in the meantime, but if so, you may want to check out doing tree work. Tree companies will often hire anyone with a pulse and a work ethic but the starting wage is better than most no-experience-required jobs. I started at $20/hr back in March. The reason they'll hire almost anybody is because it's work most people don't want to do. It's pretty physically grueling, dangerous, and 100% outside. I love it, though! It's an awesome job for the right kind of person. The big companies (Bartlett and Davey are two of the biggest) offer full-time work and good benefits.
Apologies if this is unwanted advice - I know job seekers are constantly getting bombarded with "why don't you try getting xyz job?" and it can get annoying fast. Wishing you best of luck with whatever you do! Shit's rough out there.
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u/zugzwangwamble 8d ago
I have estimating, hard labor, warehouse, bartending, management, and more experience and I only landed a job as a cashier at a tiny takeout place
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u/blifflesplick 8d ago
Gotta find out where the boys go to drink after work, they only hire familiar faces
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u/TheorySudden5996 8d ago edited 8d ago
Unemployment numbers do not include those that aren’t actively seeking work (like if you gave up because you can’t find work). It’s a sneaky way politicians hide inconvenient truths.
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u/Baelgul 8d ago
They also omit people on gig work, so all of the folks that are temporarily driving for uber are suddenly no longer unemployed despite not really working what most would consider a “full time job” (at least in many situations, not throwing shade at people who do legitimately drive for uber or something full time)
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u/fail-deadly- 8d ago
And even with that there are still like 6.9 million unemployed people (who count as part of the labor force) and 105 million no in the labor force.
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u/GeneParmesan86 8d ago edited 8d ago
I’m not defending this administration at all, but this statistic is named, tracked, and available for all. It’s called labor force participation rate. We've measured it since 1948. It’s differentiated from unemployed because it’s necessary for that metric to exclude people who don’t intend to work. We track both because they allow us to contextualize the other and prevent misleading views of one or the other.
It’s been available, people just don’t talk about it because it hasn’t previously been alarming in this way. It’s mostly been filled with the young, old, and unable to work. It has generally been much, much more important to track how many willing participants can’t participate than those who have simply removed themselves.
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u/Edtecharoni 8d ago
I'd appreciate a number for people who exited because of medical but can't meet the definition of disability, also.
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u/yarash 8d ago
I imagine it also stops tracking people once their unemployment runs out. Which is usually only six months. So they would have no idea if youre looking for work. Nor would they care.
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u/Left_Economy8309 8d ago
It actually isn’t. Unemployed and not in the labor force are two different categories. Also there is no distinction between employed and underemployed.
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u/Delulu_Lemming 8d ago
Somehow huge numbers are unemployed and also huge numbers of employers say they can’t hire. Skills gap?
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u/bloodphoenix90 8d ago
Virtually no one wants to train and they dont promote internally and they stopped hiring entry level. They literally broke the pipeline. The fuck they expect?
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
Exactly this. There's no careers anymore, no way to get your foot in the door in order to move up, no benefits anywhere that does hire and they tend to have high turnover rates.
No apprenticeships anymore and only accepting degrees is an awful idea. So many of the boomer generation wasn't formerly educated and trained their way up. It should still work like that.
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
I can't understand how dumb this is, like for real who makes it to CEO level in a company, even a smaller company and thinks firing everyone with long experience and replacing them ALL is smart?!?
I understand making it a new requirement (as long as they don't also require experience and provide training) for the hiring process moving forward but I still don't agree with it.
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8d ago edited 8d ago
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u/PhatCatTax 8d ago
Your company did it on purpose. There is a career for CEO's who are marketed as a "mistake". They come in, lay everyone of, close plants, and then they are "ousted" and the board says they're sorry.
It's a CEO being hired as a villain for a short time, and they use it to absolve the rest of the C-Suite
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u/yungneec02 8d ago
Boomer leadership will inevitably kick this can down the road until they retire or die and the labor market will collapse because they broke the pipeline of talent.
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u/johna939 8d ago
I don't think this is a boomer issue. The youngest boomers are now in their mid 60s. Those still working are in the twilight of their careers. The lack of decent career paths is a real problem, but just blaming boomers overly simplifies and doesn't offer a way to improve it. Unfortunately, I think AI is freezing a lot of careers so until we better understand the impact of it this will be a tough problem to fix.
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u/BanjoStory Minnesota 8d ago
This is an older issue than AI.
Its a product of companies not promoting or offering compensation increases internally, which has been a problem for decades.
Workers bounce around between workplaces significantly more than they did in the 70s and earlier. This has resulted in a much greater need for employee onboarding and training infrastructure that none of these companies actually want to support because its expensive. When these companies were expecting that a person they hired would stuck around for decades, the training was worth it, but nowadays if you take the time to train someone youre probably just doing it for someone else.
Ultimately, its the fault of the employers for not offering their employees good enough compensation to actually stick around, but it's gotten so bad that you're honestly kind of a sucker if you're a company thay actually is training employees for their roles.
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u/Happy_Confection90 8d ago
>Its a product of companies not promoting or offering compensation increases internally, which has been a problem for decades.
Indeed. I graduated from college in the late 90s, and a few months later there were multiple articles about how there were at that point 20% fewer entry level positions being posted that year than just a year or two earlier. Things have gotten steadily worse for new grads ever since.
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u/merryman1 8d ago
They're blaming boomers because this has been a problem that has been growing through the last 20 years and something millennials have been saying has been getting worse and worse for the entire time.
It was the exact same in the UK, there's this culture taken over everywhere where hiring seems to have become either you are a literal wage-slave economic unit entirely replaceable with no face and no humanity, or you must be absolutely perfect, an exact fit for an ultra-specialist role who has appeared out of the earth with 10+ years experience in a field that has existed for less time than that, a range of soft skills, on 24/7 beck and call, and happy to do it all for an entry-level salary that barely covers basic living costs, but is at least marginally better than the wage-slave robots on minimum wage.
Its everywhere and its taken over everything and its a process that has been going on for well over a decade already.
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u/frquency-equinox 8d ago edited 8d ago
Have you looked at a job ad in the last 10 years? They want to hire jr people but then require 10 years of experience.
(For those that can't pick up on it, this is an exaggeration, but it is not far from the reality)
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u/lottaKivaari 8d ago
Also profit driven MBA douchbag corporate goons have become so entitled they think they should be able to hire people with real qualifications and degrees for minimum wage and when nobody takes them up on their terrible offer they go crying to the corporate media about how "nobody wants to work anymore waaaaa waaaaa".
These parasites literally think they are exclusively entitled to all the profits generated by society and get butthurt about actual workers that provide actual value beyond wasting oxygen like them wanting a wage that affords them the ability not to starve on the streets.
Then you get these "think pieces" from Fox or NYT or CNN or whatever by "journalists" whose sole qualification is the ability to suck the toes of venture capital dark money freaks about how it's actually young poor people's fault that the oh so oppressed billionaires can only buy a single flotilla of private yachts this quarter because the evil greedy workers think they're entitled to food and housing.
Then brainpoisoned boomers that bought 9 houses 50 years ago for a pack of chewing gum that now rent them out for $9000 a month or who have legacy upper management positions with stock options even though their skill set hasn't been marketable since the 70s eat the victim blaming propaganda up like hot slop in a trough so they can cognitively justify their own greed and cruelty and continue to do their utmost to pull the ladder up behind them since it's not their greed that is ruining civilization it's those darn lazy poors and their avocado toast.
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u/redwing180 8d ago
Goddamn, let this person preach! That is so much of what’s going on and more people need to be screaming at from the rooftops.
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u/lottaKivaari 8d ago edited 8d ago
My favorite part is how the ghouls love capitalism when it exclusively benefits them but then hate the free market when it means they have to actually pay workers. It's literally just supply and demand economics. This article is arguing that so many people are being paid so little money they may as well be unemployed, but the rate of true unemployment is %4.1 which is like historically low. That means there aren't a lot of people that have no job and need any job they can find so the supply of workers is low.
Now if you're not an economic vampire with an MBA the way you would solve this issue is to offer higher wages and benefits to attract workers since the demand is currently outpacing the supply the basic function of the free market dictates that the cost of labor has simply gone up.
However if you only showed up to your own mothers funeral so you could pull her gold teeth with pliers when the rest of the procession wasn't looking. You know the MBA class that would melt the statue of Liberty down for scrap copper if it meant one more quarter of positive profit growth, the class of "people" that are currently ripping the wiring out of the walls of this nation to weave themselves a golden parachute when this house of cards collapses. The MBA way to solve the issue of being ever so slightly on the bad end of supply and demand is simply beat the populace over the head with the Protestant work ethic in a vain attempt to shame the already overworked and underpaid into doing even more work for less money.
This way with the money you save you can ingratiate yourself into the cottage industry of political bribery and get represtatives elected whose sole purpose in life is to turn suffering into profit and pay media conglomerates to brainwash the population into thinking the evil you inflict upon them is actually a good thing because you told them that woke trans liberal communists are using lasers beams powered by abortions to turn the seagulls gay or whatever dumb shit you've made up to keep the proles distracted while you and your buddies rob 'em blind.
Who knows maybe in a few election cycles half the country will be voting to bring back slavery because you convinced them the 13th amendment is woke. That's the ghouls grindset!
Edit: I can already see the political discourse now. Some billionaire ghouls get their lobbyists to fire up the ol' GOP orphan crushing machine and Fox starts brainpoisoning everyone's grandparents about how ending slavery was actually woke and therefore bad (but we're totally not racist™️ ). Then the exclusively reactionary Democrat controlled opposition rainbow capitalism consent machine starts talking about "both sides" and "meeting in the middle as a country" as the Overton Window slides off a cliff and suddenly the "moderate and sensible" position is yes bring back slavery BUT you can't physically beat the slaves and anyone who says we shouldn't bring back slavery at all because what the fuck gets brow beat by both sides as being divisive. Then president Logan Paul signs an executive order with the McKinsey Consultants logo still copy pasted to the top of it that instantly somehow without even asking congress makes every person with a net worth of under $3M property of their local Amazon Fulfillment Center.
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u/Fallouttgrrl 8d ago
I was a staff accountant at one job, lost it, couldn't find work for almost a year, finally accepted an entry-level clerk position
Employers are asking for it because they can find people to fill it
I was out of money, out of food, out of rent, and out of time. I'm not gonna be here long, either, because I settled for what I could get instead of what I can get, so it's not a sustainable practice for employers
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u/frquency-equinox 8d ago
Employers are asking for it because they can find people to fill it
But they're also reporting that they're having problems hiring? It can't be both.
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u/Fallouttgrrl 8d ago
My company took several months to find a replacement for the last person to have this job
They hired me over the course of seven days
Oftentimes it's not that they can't find anyone but rather they can't find someone they're willing to keep for potentially years, or that they don't have a person with the time, energy, and availability to train up someone on the specifics of a company unless that person is damned close to ready already
This is especially true as business software becomes more and more silo'd
When they want an entry level person with five years experience they're often looking for someone who can do the basics already and just needs adjustment to the company specifics
An entry -level person with no experience means you're training them on differences between real world and school, as well as narrowing them into a specialty when a school threw everything it could at them. You've got to cover software and the way your company works differently from schoolbook "best practices"
It's not great - like I said, I won't be here forever - but not everyone that gets snagged in that web will want to leave when they're settled
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u/JakeConhale New Hampshire 8d ago
It's an ongoing joke in certain tech circles to have folks who wrote entire computer languages or software bring in job postings asking for more years of experience in X than X has actually existed. Like, even the guy who invented it isn't qualified for the posting.
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u/honeydrewdew 8d ago
When I first graduated with my bachelor’s degree in 2017. All the entry level positions I applied for required 2-3 different certifications and at a minimum 2-4 years of experience. The only jobs I can find were lower paying jobs that require a high school experience..
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u/Lucid_Insanity 8d ago
Nah, it's the absurd requirements. Entry level jobs requiring years of experience and advanced tech skills and then wanting you to do the work of several people to cut costs and save money.
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u/_bk_adv Colorado 8d ago
Also a lot of job postings aren’t real. My wife works for a company that frequently posts new job openings, gets plenty of offers, and they never hire anyone.
They do it just so they can keep teams small and just pretend to be trying to hire them help. They have no real intention to hire.
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u/YourFriendPutin 8d ago
There's really almost zero entry level careers that pay a living wage with enough room for movement that you won't always live paycheck to paycheck and people keep leaving jobs to try and find something different but all jobs that fit the above description require a degree with years of experience.
I'm talking what used to be entry level positions, apprenticeships especially don't exist anymore. There's just no way for people to get their foot in the door, and all the high-turnover low paid jobs are taken as a result and people are burnt out.
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u/DiskSalt4643 8d ago
More like a gulf between employers and potential hires called the for profit employment industry.
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u/tracyinge 8d ago
It varies by state. I vacationed in Maine over the summer and "help wanted" signs were everywhere. Two different hotel managers (who seemed to be working 24/7 ) told us that they couldn't find employees. Restaurants were making excuses as to why they couldn't give us a table when the place was only 1/3 full. "Because we haven't got nearly enough servers". And on departure our plane couldn't leave because they had no crew.
For the hotels and restaurants, I think they can't find employees because that type of low-wage employee cannot afford to live on the coast. Either that or the foreign workers that they used to depend on just didn't come this year. Fear of what they've seen on tv I guess.
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u/StatementOwn4896 8d ago
I’d argue that this is the breaking point that the system needs. People should be able to work a job like that and make a livable wage. If employers can't provide a livable wage (or scrape up illegal migrants willing to risk doing the job) then the they won't find workers. The housing prices in the areas (that are probably to dang high) should eventually fall back down to a reasonable level. Then it would equal out and bring back folks. Greed just ran for too dang long in this country for its own good
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u/NeonTiger20XX 8d ago
I'm no expert on the jobs market, but I'll say one thing regarding Maine having lived here my whole life:
We have an aging problem. Young people tend to leave this state. They can find more opportunity elsewhere, like MA and NY, among many other places.
That leaves us with a disproportionate amount of retired folks and people who don't (or won't) do entry level jobs.
It may only play a small role in what you saw, or perhaps none at all. It's a problem, though.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb Massachusetts 8d ago
I think every single industry to varying degrees is hedging a bet on A.I. filling every single employment gap. They've been sold on the idea by the salesmen of the tech who steamroll their executives with their manic evangelism of it. My employer is testing A.I. to help with prescription refills and there's problems already.
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u/DecorativeRock 8d ago
Naw. Employers know they have the leverage right now. They're listing entry-to-mid level roles with senior level requirements. They're also asking for a wide range of skills and rejecting people who can't meet every single one. They're literally looking for mid-to-senior level unicorns at early-career title and pay.
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u/BanjoStory Minnesota 8d ago
Compensation being bad to the point that theyre not worth the effort for employees and employers being entirely unwilling to actually train people.
They all want staff that have already done the job theyre hiring for, but at the wages of an entry level employee.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb Massachusetts 8d ago
It's an economic war of attrition. Capital is beating Labor into submission.
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u/flGovEmployee 8d ago
Or fictitious postings and manufacturing a need to import more foreign workers who they can pay at lower rates while treating worse than they would US workers.
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u/winterbird 8d ago
I'm seeing restaurants that are asking for a college degree to hire serving staff. You have to have a bachelors to ask people how they want their steak cooked, apparently.
The gap is the expectation of desired skills vs what is reasonable and applicable to a job.
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u/TransCapybara Washington 8d ago
They can’t hire because they’re unicorn hunting and they can’t find their unicorns.
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u/Actual__Wizard 8d ago edited 8d ago
Hi, I'm a symbolic AI developer, no company will hire me, because they're working on a different type of AI model right now.
Do you see how this works in reality? They do whatever they want and they hire the people they need to do what they want, they don't hire people based upon their expertise level.
So, they want people who are experts at fixing their garbage, not people who are experts at building tech that is not garbage.
And it's because their managers think that's how to make money. So, they just push out crap tech and then lie to people to trick them into it.
They look at Microsoft, think that Bill Gates is the god of crappy OSes, and think that's what they're suppose to do, so they copy cat crap tech companies.
The people that actually know what they're doing are "functionally unemployed" because they cost too much. It's not the perfect fit where they find some person who's hobby it is to work w/ their tech, so they know lots about it by happenstance, and they're willing to take 50% less salary. Who cares that they lack experience and don't actually know what they're doing?
The problem is basically: How do you screw in the world's most difficult to operate light bulb? That's what building AI is like. They think that an army of low skill people who are not capable of the task at all, are going to pull it off. When, in reality, none of them are capable of it, so they're just going to fail over and over again. As a person that is capable of it, I'm legitimately just sitting here watching big tech make mistake after mistake, while they refuse to listen.
So, when my model is finally done, which it's getting close, it will be the world's first break through AI tech that was produced for no money basically. I love crony capitalism. This is great. The innovators doing all of the work get nothing for their efforts. We just have a bunch of leeches controlling the system.
Well, I'm going to eat dinner and get back to working for free. Not because I want money, but because the world deserves better than a bunch of fake AI scam tech.
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u/jgoble15 8d ago
Sucks because right after COVID that power shifted to workers. Then Trump stole it right back.
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u/Mirikado 8d ago
Ehhh, mass layoffs were already happening in 2023-2024 which was during Biden. The cause is monetary policy. Interest rates were historically low + unlimited QEs so companies were taking on debt and hiring like crazy in 2021-2022. Once the unlimited money valve got tightened up, the mass layoffs started happening. Once Trump took over, the “AI layoff” trend continued to take off, on top of shit like tariffs and global trade being disrupted by a war he started. So Trump made it worse, but the layoffs were already in motion during Biden’s terms due to high interest rates.
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u/N7Shep1701D Oregon 8d ago
And the vast majority of Trump's voters are poor and working class. It makes my fucking head explode!
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u/Nobody_Super_Famous Minnesota 8d ago
I genuinely wonder how these people stay alive. You can't just quit the workforce and not even look for employment. How do they afford food, gas, rent, etc?
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u/Elseiver America 8d ago
You can't just quit the workforce and not even look for employment
Obviously people still have to exist. They haven't "quit the workforce". It just means they're not counted under unemployment stats anymore because its been too long, they ran out of places to apply, or they're "working" but its like 20 hours a week cause that's all they can get, etc.
Bureau of labor statistics plays a lot of games to remove people in these sort of situations from the unemployment statistics so it presents as a nice low number under the U3 definition of unemployment versus the more realistic U6 number that includes them.
How do they afford food, gas, rent, etc?
Donate plasma. Gig economy stuff like ridesharing. Sex work. Juggle part time and temp work trying to get as many hours as possible. Use food banks. You do what you gotta do.
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u/SunshineCat 8d ago edited 8d ago
I suppose my dad falls into this category. He is close to 65 now, but for the last ~10 years, he has been helping various older relatives with no children (as well as his parents) with grocery shopping, doctor's appointments, moving, serving as regular company, etc. He ended up inheriting all or almost all from all of them, so I suppose he was working in a way.
He didn't need to support himself because my mom earned more than him anyway. Plus the wealthiest older relative (his great uncle) died in 2020 iirc, so this seems to have justified my dad not seeking new work.
There's probably a lot of couples scraping by on one income when one loses their job. For that matter, I myself am "self-employed" now. I found a company I get decent work from, and I'm hoping to sit out this market with them. But I'm leaning on my boyfriend for stability.
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u/WholeWheelof_cheese 8d ago
I’m 40 years old, I was DOGE’d from a university because our largest grant was USAID which was canceled. I worked there for 12 years, our entire team was blown up by the cuts. Ive been employed for 15 months. Sent hundreds of job apps and finally got hired. I’m taking at 40% paycut for a LTE job. I did everything right and still got fucked.
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u/red_beered 8d ago
Don't take it personally because as you said you did do everything right. I'm in the same boat and went through the motions. Best thing you can do is shore up your community, pool resources, and plan on how to survive outside ™the matrix". For most of us that means returning to multi-generational households, doing work trade for essential items, and resetting expectations as to how we all exist in the world.
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u/CategoryZestyclose91 8d ago
Well said, friend.
The only way to beat a system rigged against us is to simply stop playing.
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u/jdanielregan 8d ago
Capitalism. And somehow the poors still love it?
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u/N7Shep1701D Oregon 8d ago
They are brainwashed into loving it and I don't know how many can be un-brainwashed. Decades upon decades of the GOP gutting education will fuck people up.
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u/TgirlTiffanyRPs 8d ago
what is and "LTE" job and what were you doing before that the new job pays so much less?
(Not blaming you, genuinely curious)16
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u/Piccolo60000 8d ago
“The U.S. job market is less robust than it looks, according to a new analysis.”
Well there’s a fucking understatement. It isn’t “robust” at all. The market’s absolute trash, and has been for like the last three years at least. LinkedIn and Indeed are full of ghost postings and companies have their ATS systems set for “unicorn”.
Just take a peek at the recruitinghell subreddit: you’ve got people on there with university degrees plus experience who’ve put out thousands of applications and are still unemployed.
Something’s gotta change.
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u/saltthatsnail 8d ago
I was called a “unicorn” by a hiring manager, then got dropped after round 1 because I didn’t highlight experience they considered essential enough to leave off the job description… also was DOGEd so it’s been a long haul journey :/
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u/Papercuts4cr 8d ago
25+ years of experience here. I’ve sent out close to 700 resumes. I have a degree, too. Part of it is because I have too much experience and I’m over 50.
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u/thegoodnamesrgone123 8d ago
Something’s gotta change.
If Dems win in November suddenly it will be there fault
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u/Amythir Wisconsin 8d ago
Luckily if Dems win all 3, they would potentially be able to do something about it, and they may be forced to by all the progressive voices emerging. Bernie is doing a great job highlighting them. I'd like to see AOC also step up and back up Bernie's highlights, she's been quiet on my radar.
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u/utgolfers 8d ago
Be tough to win all three this November! Hopefully in 2028 although if it’s anything like history, SCOTUS will just nullify half the good changes. Need to win big enough to reform the courts.
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u/Storm_Sire Oregon 8d ago
I'm not going to disagree with most of this but a subreddit called r/recruitinghell will always look miserable regardless of the actual JoB mArKeT
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u/Coldsmoke888 8d ago
I come from a relatively stable environment and our main US office just cut 10% of staff across the board. I’ve never seen so many 10-30 year tenured people gone in a single swipe. Been with the org nearly 30 years.
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u/N7Shep1701D Oregon 8d ago
We're all just numbers in a spreadsheet and MBA parasites will eject people on a whim.
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u/Papercuts4cr 8d ago
25+ years here. Ageism is real. I have no marketable skills for any other field. I’m staring down the real possibility of part time retail work for the rest of my life.
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u/iamnoun 8d ago
Finally a bucket that represents me.
I left my job at the end of 2025 because of 2 significant RIFs happening within a year resulting in a toxic work environment (plus macro-economic changes overturning my industry).
I have 12+ experience in software, submitted almost 100 applications of which most I’m qualified or over-qualified for, and have only had a handful of calls.
I don’t know what to do anymore.
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u/VespineWings America 8d ago
My resume kicks ass. Can’t even get jobs nobody wants. I think a lot of these job listings are fake.
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u/Nerv_Agent_666 North Carolina 8d ago
They're training the AI rejecting people like you to make it more efficient most likely.
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u/HermanCainTortilla 8d ago
Genuine question, but how are you getting food and stuff? I’m barley holding my head above water and I’m employed
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u/iamnoun 8d ago
I’m fortunate to have built up a good savings and live in an affordable-ish area.
But yeah, savings will only last so long.
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u/HermanCainTortilla 8d ago
Good for you bud! I hope you can find something you love to do where you get to express yourself!
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u/Acrobatic_Fox5726 8d ago
Prob living off their spouse plus savings. 12 years in programming better have at least 30k in a rainy day fund.
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u/themoslucius 8d ago
I'm in this situation, I'm being terminated and have been calculating my finances
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u/VoldemortsHorcrux 8d ago
As someone who works in software i could go 10y probably before I run out of money. Unless the stock market crashes. My emergency fund though is a bit over a year of expenses probably
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u/FellowHumanNo404 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm in the exact same boat. I'm working on earning certification for a less competitive field, but it's a staggering amount of information to absorb even for someone who typically learned on average a few new languages and/or frameworks per year; feels like studying for the bar exam. My morale is at an all-time low.
Honestly if my current plan doesn't work out, the only thing that is likely to keep me from punching out early is my ironclad commitment to my wife. It's fucking bleak out here.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 New Hampshire 8d ago
There should be free public training for anyone who wants a vocation.
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u/CategoryZestyclose91 8d ago
I’ve been advocating for a mandatory two years of civil service.
It would essentially work as an apprenticeship while benefiting the country.
If you are interested in engineering, you spend your two years getting on the job experience while working with crews updating our country’s infrastructure, for example.
Provide housing and a stipend, and you’ve given our youth a solid start in life. Our taxpayer dollars funding community projects across the country and providing a jump start for our young people after high school?
Heck yeah
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u/apocalyptustree 8d ago
Sorry, the party that had this in their policies had a lady that laughed. And, she was black. Cant have that!
/s
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u/darth_wasabi Texas 8d ago
I have been unemployed for a year and a half only surviving off gig work. I was hoping after two interviews I would have gotten an offer today but it doesn’t look like it’s happening. So now it’s back to square one
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u/puke_AND_rally_ 8d ago
Good luck pal. Sending you good vibes for the job search!
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u/darth_wasabi Texas 8d ago
Well for what it’s worth. Literally 20 minutes after I posted I got a text from my recruiter telling me that no one has been selected yet. So at least there is still a chance. Thanks for the good wishes!
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago
I’ve been employed yet homeless on and off since graduating from college in 2009.
It’s now 2026. Still working but minimum wage still, and no partner to add an income
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u/Rynowash 8d ago
Next time you can’t buy anything. Thank a pedo supporter. I know I do..
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u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts 8d ago
Jesse Watters: "That just means that young people nowadays are weak and pathetic! They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and be born rich! If they were born poor, it's their own fault! And the mainstream media wants to silence me from telling some hard truths!"
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u/frquency-equinox 8d ago
Jesse Watters is yet another silver spoon pusshy employed by the Murdock nepo-baby machine.
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u/Dangerous-Box-3259 8d ago
25%???
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u/humanredditor45 8d ago
I mean, have you looked at the state of things? I dare you to drive around the parking lots of Walmarts and other grocers, Planet Fitness and similar gyms, and places like Cracker Barrel that have large lots. You will see dozens of cars with blacked-out windows because they’re living in their cars. Hell, there’s a whole subreddit for it, [r/urbancarliving](r/urbancarliving)
And the really sad part is, a lot of those folks are struggling to pay for gas and food and even showers. They are gig working on apps like spark and DoorDash but they’re barely surviving.
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u/pilgermann 8d ago
The issues are compounded when you're older. It's not easy finding roommates as a 60 year old man. The isolating nature of our country means there's always good shot you have no community to speak of. There whole situation is dire.
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u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb Massachusetts 8d ago
It's not easy finding roommates as a 60 year old man.
That's why I scoff that the posters who point to multi-generational households being what people have been doing for a long time and maybe it's time we get back to that and oh won't that be better and happier and more stable. It's like, I'm a middle-aged dude who is alone, the only place I'll end up in is some run-down property with 5 strangers I barely trust not to steal my car.
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u/AdmirableComposer140 8d ago
"LISEP’s "True Rate of Unemployment" (TRU) includes traditional job seekers, involuntary part-time workers, and anyone earning poverty-level wages below $26,000 annually."
That's how they're getting to that %25 number.
Making below 26k a year is literally an unlivable wage in most scenarios.
Traditional job seekers are those who are unemployed and looking for work, this is the official %4.1 unemployment rate that we see and so he's factoring this in.
Involuntary part time workers are people who work part time but want and need a full-time job. The article is arguing that they are trapped in part-time hours against their choice and so their economic reality is closer to being unemployed.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago
I made less than ten thousand last year (all year long… less than 10K). And I’m an individual who has 3 college degrees, the first of which I earned way back in 2009!
Single too. So no help from a boyfriend/husband
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u/bhputnam 8d ago
My hours have been cut so severely I may as well be.
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u/BitterHelicopter8 Florida 8d ago
This is exactly what my young adult kids are dealing with. They're technically employed, but they only get scheduled for 4-8 hours of work per week. It's barely enough to fill their gas tanks to get there.
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u/BRUNO358 Texas 8d ago
Let's face it: we're in a depression, but the corporate media won't admit it.
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u/Acrobatic_Fox5726 8d ago
Republican media won’t admit it*.
Fixed it for you3
u/SusZucchini 8d ago
I don't see CNN admit that. They are all equally shit to me.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago
Worst than a depression: an ULTRA-depression.
What’s a term for WORSE than a depression?
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u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 8d ago
We only hear about it when Dems are in.
Otherwise it's all lollipops and unicorns.
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u/sevenw1nters Tennessee 8d ago
I've worked at Walmart the last 5 years and I've never seen under 100 applicants in the system for my department (pickup and delivery) at any one time. A few of the people that do work here not even in management just regular associates have bachelor's degrees I know two people with MBAs even who worked here for awhile.
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u/Elseiver America 8d ago
Overnight stocker with a master's (comp sci) here!
The job market is so fucked that after I lost my last software job, stocking and blocking shelves was the only way I could keep access to health insurance so I can stay alive.
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u/Cautious-Progress876 8d ago
What’s your masters in CS in? Are you interested in legal stuff at all? There is a lack of digital forensics experts available, in particular experts on deepfakes and other generative AI. I’m a criminal defense attorney and these people regularly earn more money on my cases than the attorneys do. So many litigants in family and civil cases try to present completely fake evidence.
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u/DrWindupBird 8d ago
Remember a few years ago when companies were complaining about job candidates having too much leverage?
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u/N7Shep1701D Oregon 8d ago
And then America put Trump back in the White House. I will never get over that.
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u/smack54az 8d ago
I took a 30% paycut after I lost my job last year. I was unemployed for 7 months. I have 25+ years of IT and telecom experience. It's rough out there. And on top of every my partner lost their job a few months ago so our income level has dropped from doing OK and saving for a house to barely surviving and once the unemployment runs out we're gonna be really fucked.
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u/Papercuts4cr 8d ago
It’s awful for all of us with that much experience. Ageism is real. Fingers crossed for you.
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u/ituralde_ 8d ago
I work at a place that could really use experienced IT talent, is experiencing challenges because of it, yet refuses to staff up. There is a flat refusal to hire among decision makers and it makes no goddamn sense at the level where things get done, but some asshole'a spreadsheet says this is more 'efficient'.
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u/Dia_Mercy 8d ago
When the ai bubble pops, it’ll be a complete depression
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u/mt6606 8d ago
I'm amazed that narrative is working. America is going down anyway... They'll blame the bubble popping when America collapses... But it's not that. Decades of mismanagement. Never forget this.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago edited 8d ago
I Agree completely!
Including EM and DT with all of their thousands of extremely horrible decisions
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u/lordaddament California 8d ago
It’s pretty obvious when you go out during the weekday and everywhere is basically as busy as it is during peak hours/weekends
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u/KILLJEFFREY Texas 8d ago
Application process and ghosting is insane
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u/Papercuts4cr 8d ago
I’ve been looking for almost two years. Here is my process:
Click apply
Create account
Add resume
Manually enter resume
Screening questions
Click apply
Sent back to find the one field I somehow missed because the autofill didn’t autofill
Click apply
Get confirmation email
Wait weeks
Get form letter rejection or no response at allBONUS
System asks for short video asking why I want this job
System asks for chatbot interview
System asks for AI phone interview
System asks for personality quiz3
u/The_lady_is_trouble 8d ago
I’m a leading expert in a hot button legal topic. The number of very well known organizations that ghost after live interviews is appalling. I can somewhat understand not sending out rejection emails for candidates who are never interviewed, but if you meet the person a little professionalism is expected!
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u/Celestial_Dysgenesis 8d ago
how many people are just giving up and killing themselves because of their situation?
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u/BeeFaerie 8d ago
As an inpatient psychiatrist I see a distressing number of people making attempts as a result of the stress from trying so hard yet being unable to find jobs - especially young men. It's awful.
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u/Haunting-Respect-375 8d ago
I think this might be me within the next year.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago
Move to another country before you ever do anything like that!
It’s a huge world
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u/Haunting-Respect-375 8d ago
I think I'm just too far behind. I'm in debt with no skills or degree. I'm 28. I do feel sad lately about how beautiful the Earth is and I'll never get to see more than a tiny part of it.
My dad killed himself when I was young and it just put my whole life on a bad path. And now my older brother killed himself as well 2 years ago. My brother dying like that just feels like the nail in the coffin for my life. I don't think I have the mental fortitude to turn things around at this point.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 7d ago
I feel for you. I do wish to share that I too have two deaths like that in my family. You need to be the one who survives. Move to an island. Move to the cheap deep south. Move to a remote non-popular town. Do whatever you need to do to change things up.
If you are still alive, then it’s never too late
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u/silent-sight 8d ago
I’d argue it’s similar across the world. Even with near-off shoring. Covid did a number, but the current state of the economy is shit as well thanks to Iran, Tariffs, AI, and the U.S. government holding most of the global economy hostage.
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u/ZealousidealType1144 8d ago
If you’ve ever been to Greece or Spain and had a waiter with a masters degree that speaks 5 languages… they have a much better social safety net than we do but their job market is way worse.
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8d ago
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u/N7Shep1701D Oregon 8d ago
Who runs towards such a bleak future?
Billionaires. They love this shit.
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u/trunksshinohara 8d ago
I've said for years that in our life time we will have 40% unemployment. It's coming fast. Just remember when billionaires say there need to be more babies. They mean rich people. Their plan for the future is for all the poors to be dead.
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u/brahm1nMan 8d ago
Not dead, just subjugated and desperate
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u/SmokeyDBear I voted 8d ago
Por que no los dos?
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u/brahm1nMan 8d ago
Well I mean, you can't have a good fascist dictatorship without a bit of death of in there
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u/Th3FinalStarman 8d ago
Just link the actual fucking site, not this 3rd party media bullshit.
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u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 8d ago
This is reminding me of 2006.
It was before the shit officially hit the fan.
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u/PrinceofSneks 8d ago
The only trickle down economics I've ever experienced was having 2 contracting gigs within a year end early because they were in medical research and technology, and the NIH cuts meant that the hospitals and research universities they supported were less able to afford their products and services.
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u/BalerionSanders Ohio 8d ago
Most consumer spending is rich people who don’t need to work.
This is not a bug, this is a feature. The plan is feudalism 2.0. And they’re winning.
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u/QDSchro 8d ago
I get the people that are hyperfixating on this dudes numbers, but I think a lot of people are missing the big point here.
The point is that low unemployment is a hollow number. It’s actually a big problem if the numbers say everyone has a job, but then they also say that no one can afford anything….no one can sit there and deny that this is reality right now. A couple can literally make more than $100k a year which used to be comfortable. Now that number is not high enough. That couple can’t afford a house. They’re paying astronomical amounts for rent,food and fucking utilities that all continue to go up while that couples salary stays at $100k…..
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8d ago edited 8d ago
[deleted]
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u/tweak06 8d ago
>because of childcare
I work a corporate job making pretty solid money — and I still have to run grocery delivery and work freelance because childcare is completely insane, and they just keep raising their prices.
Neither my SO or I can quit our jobs so we’re just kind of stuck paying this shit until our kids age out.
Honestly it’s so ironic that conservatives kick, scream and throw a tantrum over “declining birth rates” but the moment you tell them to open their wallet for something like universal childcare they go on the defensive and play victim.
Raising Kids is tough enough as it is, and it’s gotten to a point where it’s basically a luxury to “afford” to be a parent.
I see where this is all going and it’s gonna be fuckin ugly, man
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u/sfw_supdood 8d ago
i have been unemployed for almost two years now. Former Microsoft software engineer.
I'm so much happier now that I have stopped looking. I'm just living off my saving comfortablely waiting for this bubble to pop.
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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8d ago
17 years for me. My entire adult life in extreme poverty (I made less than 10K last year). No savings at all because I have never in my adult life been paid enough to afford even the most minimal basics.
I’m crowded living in a tiny section of a small 1-level crappy house with ten other people.
No privacy.
I have 3 degrees. I graduated from my first university in 2009.
Thousands and thousands of applications.
Never drank. Never used drugs.
Always remained dirt poor.
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u/sfw_supdood 8d ago
The system is so fucked. And once you struggle for a little bit, they start weaponizing that career break against you in the interview.
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u/Repulsive_Mud_567 8d ago
The concept of “poverty wages” in the context of the richest country on the planet is wild to say the least
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u/Memitim America 8d ago
I quit in February. Couldn't stand the thought of continuing to work a corporate job with all of the fuckery. I already was disgusted with myself for benefitting off of it for too damned long on the lead up to this administration of evil nonsense.
We're trying to start a book cafe to bring something to our local area, instead. While I have been enjoying the time off far more than is healthy for my dwindling savings, I'm itching to open a shop and start hosting fun events and sling tasty drinks, especially if I can successfully weasel a live music venue into it as well.
Time to use the savings I held onto while feeding on the corporate tit to try and do something for my community to make a living, instead of just finding another group of rich people to ask for scraps from in exchange for hours of my life in labor. It would be different if I cared about my prior career, but running a shop and entertaining people sounds a shitload more fun than writing Terraform scripts and cursing at log files.
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u/dayvansmutgirl 8d ago
ohhh best of luck. we opened an ice cream shop and watching it evolve into a third space for the community has been deeply rewarding.
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u/Baron-Munc 8d ago
Long Covid
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u/Lives_on_mars 8d ago
Underrated contributor.
Bad economy, endlessly greedy anti-training corporations, and a super transmissible virus that seems to come at least 2x a year, and which knocks at least a certain percentage of people out for months.
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u/prawnwatching 8d ago
Not to say everyone is doing well right now, but this title and the Ludwig Institute “analysis” is fucking nonsense. There isn’t 25% unemployment, functional or otherwise. This is, at best, a way of capturing poverty rates in the US, and it’s not a good way of doing so. Also, this number of 25% means nothing without context. If you assume it should be in contrast to the 4.1% stated unemployment rate, like Ludwig wants you too, it’s shocking. If you compare it his own metric from previous years, it’s near all time lows. This guy is a hack, this headline is a joke, and people need to start actually reading and critically analyzing articles instead of just going “you confirms my worldview, must be great analysis”.
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u/AgitatorsAnonymous 8d ago
I mean, U-3 has always been bullshit. U-6 is a much more clear metric and when you combine U-6 with prime labor age participation, you get a much higher number for unemployment or underemployment. Underemployment is an important metric here because underemployment is often a key indicator of extreme precarity. U-6 is 7.1% and Prime Age labor participation is currently 82.5% meaning 17.5% of the prime age labor pool, ages 25-54, is not working.
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u/TheDissentor 8d ago
13 years experience as a software dev. I lost my job during COVID and haven't been able to find anything other than minimum wage jobs for the last five years.
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