3 ms·

Awesome - though why am I now having so much trouble finding a new role compared to past 20 years?

by gedy 3y ago

evbogue 3y ago
Yah I was just thinking that I'm afraid if I leave my job I won't get another one.
- throwaway5959 3y ago
  That’s the goal the way I see it. Companies are working people to the bone because they and other companies aren’t hiring. It’s definitely coordinated.
  - evbogue 3y ago
    Well why would I complain? At least I'm not part of the 4%*!
MightyBuzzard 3y ago
Maybe because the US unemployment numbers have nothing to do with the actual number of working age people employed. By design.
- kemotep 3y ago
  Are you referring to the U6 unemployment figure and not the U4 number reported on in the article? U6 is 7%[0] for the month of December 2023. [0]: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
givemeethekeys 3y ago
Once you are unemployed for longer than a certain period of time (six months?), you're no longer counted among the unemployed as you are considered to no longer be in the labor market. Statistricks.
- porknubbins 3y ago
  Thats only true if after 6 months you give up and stop looking for work. If you have looked for work (very broadly defined, even just asking friends counts) in the past four weeks you are counted as part of the labor force.
  - hornban 3y ago
    In what capacity are you counted in this situation? I have a hard time believing that "asking a friend" somehow makes it into government labor statistics.
    - creer 3y ago
      I don't remember the details but it seems to me: active polling (interviews) is involved, and we never see it because they use an amazingly small sample. So that, yes, it can be counted.
    - dghlsakjg 3y ago
      The government does random polling. “Asking a friend” actually does explicitly qualify as looking for work. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed
- jongjong 3y ago
  That is extremely deceptive as there are many people in such situation. I know many countries are doing this. For example, I haven't had a job for almost 6 months but I've put 'self-employed' on LinkedIn and have been working on my startup during this time (and already have a fully working product which is easier to use, more scalable and more effective than the competition) but I don't think I'm going to be able to find users in the current environment due to existing media/tech monopoly and insurmountable trust barriers as well as a discriminatory ESG/DEI environment which makes it impossible for me (a straight white male) to raise funding to pay for advertising. I know other people in similar situations. Apparently in Australia, half of the working age population is on welfare and at the same time there are shortages of many essential services like daycare which prevent people who have children from working as one parent has to stay home. Apparently the government is making it hard for daycare businesses to expand which is driving the shortage. Also, tax brackets in Australia are based on individual income, not household income and therefore, taxes are very high if only one partner is working (which is often the case due to the shortage of daycare centers as mentioned above). Property prices are also very high and rent is very high. The government is also ramping up immigration to prop up property prices + rents and foreigners end up taking many of the jobs which increases competition, drives down wages and makes paying rent even harder. It's like everything is broken and the brokenness compounds. Even the incentives are broken so it's not even fixable with the current political system. The media and funding environment just doesn't allow new tech ventures to launch and find their first users unless the founders are in some special in-group. I don't even want to get into the details of what happened to me up until that point in my career. It's been an epic tale about the struggle for survival... Not in some remote forest in the Amazon or lost on some remote island like Robinson Crusoe, but merely survival in a profoundly dysfunctional socio-economic system.
lettergram 3y ago
There’s some fun stuff in the unemployment stats if you look. For instance, more people taking a second job. Companies are also cutting higher salary employees and reducing hiring.
YetAnotherNick 3y ago
Because you are not the same person 20 years ago and neither take the same salary.
- gedy 3y ago
  Sure but past 2-7 years I haven't changed much either, and willing to take less as well.
throwaway5959 3y ago
Probably tax changes to amortization.
evantbyrne 3y ago
Skill issue. Just kidding. It took me a couple months to find a new job over the fall, and I couldn't believe how grueling the experience was compared to the past. It was a full-time job just searching and interviewing, and at every step I was reminded of how many other candidates there were. Had to pass nine separate interviews to land an offer from my current employer. By that time, I had one other offer, and I was just ready to be done. Luckily, they were my first choice from the beginning. I think part of what is going on is that tech is highly sensitive to interest rates, but that's not the whole story. There was also a cultural shift that happened. Many places issued return to office policies that acted as stealth layoffs. Most developers that went remote over the pandemic probably wish to remain remote, and remote jobs are harder to get interviews for due to competition. A lot of places also fucked around with replacing US developers with overseas contractors. By now, I think a lot of those places have resumed hiring in the US. Given time, it will get better. Best of luck.
- jongjong 3y ago
  Same. When I got my last job, they struggled to find people and were desperate to hire me with a high salary + a generous share package.... Then 8 months later they were getting 200+ applications for a single developer position. Then I was let go because new candidates were much cheaper. It was like WTF. Obviously the entire economy has turned into some insane scheme. There's no way these sudden market changes are natural. What sickens me about modern society is that whenever they cheat you, they always accompany it with gaslighting... Which is exactly what this 'record low unemployment' rhetoric is. Just like ESG/DEI/wokeness it's pure media gaslighting designed to cover up the fact that they had started discriminating against straight white people. Now whenever a young white person tells their parents "I can't get a job because they're discriminating against me," they give a weird look and respond with something like "Uhhhh, no, no, no, it's everyone else who is being discriminated against, that's what the media said. Sounds like you're just lazy, too lazy to even come up with your own excuses." Thankfully I'm good at explaining things and my parents are intelligent so I think they understand what's happening now but there was a moment of tension. Reminded me of the COVID vaccine mandate + media hysteria breaking families apart. I try not to take anything seriously and just focus on survival. It's like everything is fucked in the most optimal way imaginable. Optimized for fuckery, not efficiency...

Awesome - though why am I now having so much trouble finding a new role compared to past 20 years?

by gedy 3y ago

Awesome - though why am I now having so much trouble finding a new role compared to past 20 years?

evbogue 3y ago

Yah I was just thinking that I'm afraid if I leave my job I won't get another one.

throwaway5959 3y ago
That’s the goal the way I see it. Companies are working people to the bone because they and other companies aren’t hiring. It’s definitely coordinated.
- evbogue 3y ago
  Well why would I complain? At least I'm not part of the 4%*!

MightyBuzzard 3y ago

Maybe because the US unemployment numbers have nothing to do with the actual number of working age people employed. By design.

kemotep 3y ago
Are you referring to the U6 unemployment figure and not the U4 number reported on in the article? U6 is 7%[0] for the month of December 2023. [0]: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm

givemeethekeys 3y ago

Once you are unemployed for longer than a certain period of time (six months?), you're no longer counted among the unemployed as you are considered to no longer be in the labor market. Statistricks.

porknubbins 3y ago
Thats only true if after 6 months you give up and stop looking for work. If you have looked for work (very broadly defined, even just asking friends counts) in the past four weeks you are counted as part of the labor force.
- hornban 3y ago
  In what capacity are you counted in this situation? I have a hard time believing that "asking a friend" somehow makes it into government labor statistics.
  - creer 3y ago
    I don't remember the details but it seems to me: active polling (interviews) is involved, and we never see it because they use an amazingly small sample. So that, yes, it can be counted.
  - dghlsakjg 3y ago
    The government does random polling. “Asking a friend” actually does explicitly qualify as looking for work. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#unemployed
jongjong 3y ago
That is extremely deceptive as there are many people in such situation. I know many countries are doing this. For example, I haven't had a job for almost 6 months but I've put 'self-employed' on LinkedIn and have been working on my startup during this time (and already have a fully working product which is easier to use, more scalable and more effective than the competition) but I don't think I'm going to be able to find users in the current environment due to existing media/tech monopoly and insurmountable trust barriers as well as a discriminatory ESG/DEI environment which makes it impossible for me (a straight white male) to raise funding to pay for advertising. I know other people in similar situations. Apparently in Australia, half of the working age population is on welfare and at the same time there are shortages of many essential services like daycare which prevent people who have children from working as one parent has to stay home. Apparently the government is making it hard for daycare businesses to expand which is driving the shortage. Also, tax brackets in Australia are based on individual income, not household income and therefore, taxes are very high if only one partner is working (which is often the case due to the shortage of daycare centers as mentioned above). Property prices are also very high and rent is very high. The government is also ramping up immigration to prop up property prices + rents and foreigners end up taking many of the jobs which increases competition, drives down wages and makes paying rent even harder. It's like everything is broken and the brokenness compounds. Even the incentives are broken so it's not even fixable with the current political system. The media and funding environment just doesn't allow new tech ventures to launch and find their first users unless the founders are in some special in-group. I don't even want to get into the details of what happened to me up until that point in my career. It's been an epic tale about the struggle for survival... Not in some remote forest in the Amazon or lost on some remote island like Robinson Crusoe, but merely survival in a profoundly dysfunctional socio-economic system.

lettergram 3y ago

There’s some fun stuff in the unemployment stats if you look. For instance, more people taking a second job. Companies are also cutting higher salary employees and reducing hiring.

YetAnotherNick 3y ago

Because you are not the same person 20 years ago and neither take the same salary.

gedy 3y ago
Sure but past 2-7 years I haven't changed much either, and willing to take less as well.

throwaway5959 3y ago

Probably tax changes to amortization.

evantbyrne 3y ago

Skill issue. Just kidding. It took me a couple months to find a new job over the fall, and I couldn't believe how grueling the experience was compared to the past. It was a full-time job just searching and interviewing, and at every step I was reminded of how many other candidates there were. Had to pass nine separate interviews to land an offer from my current employer. By that time, I had one other offer, and I was just ready to be done. Luckily, they were my first choice from the beginning. I think part of what is going on is that tech is highly sensitive to interest rates, but that's not the whole story. There was also a cultural shift that happened. Many places issued return to office policies that acted as stealth layoffs. Most developers that went remote over the pandemic probably wish to remain remote, and remote jobs are harder to get interviews for due to competition. A lot of places also fucked around with replacing US developers with overseas contractors. By now, I think a lot of those places have resumed hiring in the US. Given time, it will get better. Best of luck.

jongjong 3y ago
Same. When I got my last job, they struggled to find people and were desperate to hire me with a high salary + a generous share package.... Then 8 months later they were getting 200+ applications for a single developer position. Then I was let go because new candidates were much cheaper. It was like WTF. Obviously the entire economy has turned into some insane scheme. There's no way these sudden market changes are natural. What sickens me about modern society is that whenever they cheat you, they always accompany it with gaslighting... Which is exactly what this 'record low unemployment' rhetoric is. Just like ESG/DEI/wokeness it's pure media gaslighting designed to cover up the fact that they had started discriminating against straight white people. Now whenever a young white person tells their parents "I can't get a job because they're discriminating against me," they give a weird look and respond with something like "Uhhhh, no, no, no, it's everyone else who is being discriminated against, that's what the media said. Sounds like you're just lazy, too lazy to even come up with your own excuses." Thankfully I'm good at explaining things and my parents are intelligent so I think they understand what's happening now but there was a moment of tension. Reminded me of the COVID vaccine mandate + media hysteria breaking families apart. I try not to take anything seriously and just focus on survival. It's like everything is fucked in the most optimal way imaginable. Optimized for fuckery, not efficiency...