It hasn’t been this hard for Americans to find work since 2021
And before that, 2020, and before that, 2012, and before that, 2008, and before that. . . .
I suspect the system is designed this way, to put people in a near-permanent cutthroat burnout-hustle state of sheer desperation for anything even resembling stability.
It also keeps the working class as a whole scattered and inwardly conflicted, so they don’t mass up against their masters.
The rich didn’t design this, they merely exploit the design.
The rich do not create or design anything. They steal everything they have from the working class and rebrand some of it as their own.
Does this count as the third once in a lifetime recession in my lifetime or is this a continuation of the last one
I barely made it through the great recession.
At one point, I was down to my last $500 USD which didn’t even cover the rent coming up due in days, most of my calories were coming from fruits and veggies I was literally collecting from the wild, looking at eviction, and with no job prospects when I was so desperate that I begrudgingly accepted the worst job of my entire life (so far).
I fought my way into a better job and career over the years, but continued to live like a dude who was only a month or two away from homelessness. I did not take extravagant vacations, wear high end clothes, drive a flashy car, own an expensive home, eat fancy meals, buy lots of “toys”. Aside from electronics, almost everything I owned was second hand or gifted to me. People constantly made judgemental comments about my lifestyle, clothes, car, and so on.
By the end of 2024, I was almost at the point of feeling financially secure in life, considering making some big upgrades to my lifestyle.
Then in 2025, I got laid off after more than a decade from a company that religiously referred to its employees as family. No warning. In fact, up until that point, all we were hearing was lies (ex: we’re doing okay financially, we planned for this sort of thing, etc). I had 10 years of top scores on evaluations, 10 years of impeccable project work, 10 years of raving reviews from my peers. And yet, when the least little bit of financial difficulty reared its ugly head, I was cut in the first round of layoffs.
Fortunately for me, I sacrificed and lived quite frugally over the years, so I just don’t give a shit about the job market right now. I’d love to have a job, I feel like I’m basically living off of money that could be my retirement, but at the end of the day fuck Trump and the flailing Trump economy. If I have to go 10 years without a job, it’s going to suck, but I’ve got this.
On the other hand, I feel horrified for many of my coworkers who got laid off at the same time, and for the majority of people in general who have lost their jobs because of Trump and his sycophants. Most of them either didn’t get a chance to prepare or didn’t have the foresight to prepare the way I was privileged enough to do.
I ditched the IT world for production and manufacturing. CNC machining has a surprising amount of skill crossover and even more so in inspection. If you’re physically capable and have programming experience, it’s worth looking into.
Could you share some more information about this if you don’t mind?
tl;dr working with your hands can be better than working with a keyboard at times
Aside from the physical labor involved (there’s really no way around it), the actual things to keep in mind are very similar to the troubleshooting process on a computer. It’s ultimately about identifying there’s a problem and digging until you remove it. You’ll have to learn how to get better at filtering parts, debugging machine code (reading machine code is easy if you’re a programmer, and you have a good CAD programmer above you), maintaining the machine itself, keeping track of tools and orders…
And if you have an IT skillset, you’ll likely be one of the few that knows how to work a desktop well and can be the helping hand around the shop for that sort of thing, if you want. There’s lots of flexibility because there’s a lot less concern about public image. That being said, you might have to look around, because a lot of these places can get lax with safety and quality.
The machines are generally pleasant to work with as well. Instead of software made by companies that actively hate their customers, you get to work with massive machines that have hundreds of millions of dollars poured into development and another few hundred thousand in manufacturing. On top of that, most well-run shops will have you stick to your task. They won’t expect you to randomly cross-train on things because it can actually be really dangerous if you’re not well trained.
If you had to work Helpdesk, you no longer have to work with customer directly at all. You get to talk to other machinists, many of which have been doing it since they were teenagers or younger. It’s also a job where you get to constantly hone your craft and see the physical result. There’s something really satisfying about holding a finishing part in your hand.
I got lucky with a job offer, but you can often take a few-month fast-track course through a community college. It will run a few thousand dollars, but the course that my job offered taught me a ton.
I’ve since moved to screen printing due to poor management at the shop I previously worked, but the principles are all still there. If you’re good at working with your hands and enjoy seeing a finished product, try some local manufacturing places. A lot of them do offer training to get you in since skilled tradespeople are getting harder and harder to find these days.
I’m honest in saying that anyone who doesn’t want to do a decent amount of manual labor on top of having to use their full talent set (i.e. not tedious/mindless labor) is not a good fit and more importantly, it will probably pay less getting started than the IT industry, but if you get into something like programming or inspection, you can quickly be making double entry level rates in a couple of years. Just depends on where your skillset lies.
Hope my rambling gives you a decent idea of why I enjoy it compared to working at a desk all day. I get to interact with the world a lot more and when I look at the finished result, I know I played a significant part in that.
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I’m going to become homeless before I get an interview. I have ten years experience. I’m trying to keep my head held high and do self training. Even posting my Udemy certs on LinkedIn (I know they’re worth less than toilet paper).
No one cares.
20 years experience. 58 years old laid off by a thinly veiled pac masquerading as a no. Profit
Can’t even get a damn interview. It’s been two years. I’ve quit looking for work and just started teaching guitar.
I will never make good money again.
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If you’re a developer and finally have a job you need to work on pushing what the industry has always needed. Start pushing to start a union.
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Pretty sure trade unions don’t require everyone to work at the same shop. I paid union dues when I worked doing screen printing in a shop that was me, another dude, and the owner who did all the design. That was the entire business and we were still part of the local painters trade union.
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What’s the actual benefit for ME?
The anti-union propaganda is so deeply ingrained in you that you didn’t even pause when you typed they out.
I don’t have any other options that don’t involve unskilled labor. I’m also not a young man anymore.
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I was putting in about a dozen per day on LinkedIn and was getting nowhere. Then after a few weeks there weren’t a dozen places left to apply at. So now I do that about twice a week and look up posts created in a week’s time.
My main skills over the last 10 years have been HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the React framework. I just got done cramming Python so I can learn Flask.
Dice and Indeed have traditionally only gotten me third party recruiters and that never ends well or is profitable.
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