I had to quit my job last year both for health reasons and because we decided to put our daughter in online school.
I was a video editor before all of this. I was already unable to find a job in my field for a few years because everyone marketing person’s boss told them to download a free editing app and just shoot it all on their iPhone. Doesn’t matter if it sucks, it’s cheaper. And by the time I’m back on the job market, they’ll use AI to do it. And it will still suck compared to what I can do, but they won’t care because it’s cheaper.
I’m turning 48 next month. I feel like I’m basically doomed to work shit jobs that I hate until I die.
capitalism was. tech is just tech.
AI can be used to speed us up, so instead of having free time we get 1 person shoddily doing the work of a few.
It’s exactly the same thing in the sense that a slingshot and nuclear bomb are the same thing. That is to say, the degree is so extreme that they might as well be unrelated.
I haven’t heard anyone propose that digital cameras are an existential threat to humans. This is no mere horse and buggy problem. If we develop generally intelligent AI it’s game over for our capitalist global economy.
That’s the thing about all these articles on how well the job market is doing, while simultaneously there are tons of articles on layoffs and bankruptcies that they never acknowledge that all - the new jobs always feel like they are in gig and crap work.
I can’t say I had any luck on there but someone with your skills may do well on Freelancer if you’ve got a portfolio of your work.
The “labor market” is great for jobs paying <$15/hr. Go to your local gas station, dollar store, or restaurant and you’ll probably see a help wanted sign.
Over that and youre kinda fucked unless you have a niche role to fill.
Yeah, talking about jobs being created without any context on the types of jobs being created is meaningless. Great, there are now more part-time jobs paying minimum wage with no benefits and erratic schedules near me, just the sort of job creation I was waiting for so I could regress in my career.
We don’t want your shit smear jobs that pay nothing and have ass schedules
Exactly! And why the fuck the majority of employers say they can’t afford to pay more?
I have no earthly clue what world economists are living in where the labor market is great.
I’ve been looking for a job for over a year (in tech, over a dozen years as an SDE, a dozen more as a TPM, lead role in both titles). Whenever I can get an employer to actually respond to the hundreds of applications I send, their salary offerings are a joke.
Are people just out there taking 20% - 30% haircuts on what they make?
What industry? I’m more of less in the same boat as you. I’m in tech, and this articles assessment seems pretty spot on from my perspective.
Yeah, tech. Updated my original comment to clarify.
Honestly, the bit from the article that rang most accurate was this:
Lastly, it’s possible that many Americans think the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s job opening figures are overstated. For example, some job seekers have reported encountering “ghost jobs” — listings on job platforms that companies are no longer actively hiring for.
I’ve been keeping track of the roles I’ve gone after (well within qualification for) and I’m seeing a lot of re-listings for roles that closed out my application (with no outreach) and just relisted the req after a few weeks, over and over again.
I’m not saying the listings are fake, but if they were fake, this is pretty much what it would look like from the outside.
I’m seeing exactly the same thing. Certain companies re-listing the same position for months on end, despite hundreds of people applying.
According to this article I read recently, some companies are either doing it to give the illusion that they’re thriving and planning to take on more staff, or just to keep a pool of potential applicants on the back burner just in case.
It sucks. I’ve been looking to make a career change for over a year, and have only had two interviews despite sending out literally hundreds of applications.
Take a gig and keep applying. Unfortunately the algorithm smells blood and currently you’ve got none.
I guarantee as soon as you’re employed you’ll be getting recruiters and connects, and you’ll be in a far better bargaining spot than you are now
Downvotes from people who can’t strategize their own lives at a basic level
They’re measuring job offerings against unemployment claims rate. If there’s toilet scrubbing jobs out there and you don’t qualify for any benefits: that’s a humming labor market to an economist.
I remind people that the fastest way to “create a job” is to take a full time position with benefits, cut the hours in half and divide them amongst two new positions after removing the benefits and now you have a 100% increase in the supply of jobs.
My first ‘legal’ job when I was a minor was working maintenance at a retirement facility. I was hired along with another high schooler at minimum wage.
It was a summer gig and right before I quit to go back to school the main maintenance guy revealed that we had replaced a single person who was paid our combined wage.
It is a long established strategy.
I feel you. I lost my job in January and I’ve had literally not even a single callback or interview. It’s insane.
Oh look, another article where privileged folks point at lines on a chart and tell us we’re wrong for acknowledging that our lived experiences and those of our friends suck in recent years.
