The Great Freeze “job creation is pretty close to zero.”

[Anonymous]

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell drew a stark picture of a labor market that looks fine on the surface—4.3% unemployment, but is quietly losing momentum underneath. Once you adjust for statistical overcounting in the payroll data, job creation is pretty close to zero.

“Job creation is very low, and the job-finding rate for people who are unemployed is very low,” Powell said.

Strong investment but weak hiring. Powell said the economy increasingly resembles a K-shape, with higher-income households and large corporations benefiting from strong stock markets and AI-fueled productivity gains, while lower-income consumers pull back under the weight of rising costs.

CEOs are openly telling investors “AI allows them to do more with fewer people.”

U.S. employers have announced nearly 946,000 layoffs so far this year with more than 17,000 explicitly tied to AI and another 20,000 to automation.

Unemployment among recent college grads is 5%.

“We have upside risks to inflation, downside risks to employment, this is a very difficult thing for a central bank, because one of those calls for rates to be lower, one calls for rates to be higher.”

https://fortune.com/2025/10/30/jerome-powell-ai-bubble-jobs-unemployment-crisis-interest-rates/

[Anonymous]

Central bank's job is to make money mean something. It can't fix society. That requires good democratic governance.

[Anonymous]

How I wish we could focus on aging infrastructure and build modern systems that will be in place for the next 50 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How I wish we could focus on aging infrastructure and build modern systems that will be in place for the next 50 years.

Build back better

[Anonymous]

If we are going to engineer for the future then we have to stop blocking every project with endless legal challenges. There is nothing in the bill that addresses that core problem. And the answer is not Trump‘s idea to remove all regulations. Unfortunately judges have too much power to block useful projects.

[Anonymous]

Great Depression
Ask Theil, Trump, Miller & The Heritage Foundation, they did this for a reason and anyone with a brain knows why.

[Anonymous]

Anyone looking for a job right now is all too aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great Depression
Ask Theil, Trump, Miller & The Heritage Foundation, they did this for a reason and anyone with a brain knows why.

As much as I despise these people, they are not responsible for the emergency of AI. Artificial intelligence was bound to come as soon as we invented computers.

[Anonymous]

There will be no jobs by the middle of 2026.

And they are not coming back.

Republicans are burning the country to the ground on purpose.

[Anonymous]

A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

I wonder what the narrative would have been during the financial crisis if everyone was active on social media.

Everything is very “sky is falling” regarding jobs, but humans have worked since the beginning of time. There’s no telling what new jobs will be created or how this will evolve.

If the average American thinks AI will get rid of most jobs, then most likely the opposite will happen. The average American isn’t very bright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

I wonder what the narrative would have been during the financial crisis if everyone was active on social media.

Everything is very “sky is falling” regarding jobs, but humans have worked since the beginning of time. There’s no telling what new jobs will be created or how this will evolve.

If the average American thinks AI will get rid of most jobs, then most likely the opposite will happen. The average American isn’t very bright.

I agree with you there is a lot of unnecessary panic especially since the vast majority of job losses today are not due to AI. In fact most workers have not even had to use AI at their job.

Having said, it's fair to be nervous. Capitalists do not like losing money. We have never seen this level of investment into AI before. Capital owners will demand return on investments. Whether it comes in the form of job cuts and benefits as a result of AI being able to do those tasks or in other forms, we will all be affected at some point. Can I do my job? I have no idea? Can it do yours, I have no idea either? However, these capital owners are not going to invest trillions of dollars and still keep the same headcount. Humans are expensive. You need to give them healthcare. You need to give them annual leave etc. This is an expense the AI investors will love to get rid off.

All am I saying, while it's not time to panic, let's also not be naive in thinking that trillions will be invested and investors won't expect massive returns in result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

I wonder what the narrative would have been during the financial crisis if everyone was active on social media.

Everything is very “sky is falling” regarding jobs, but humans have worked since the beginning of time. There’s no telling what new jobs will be created or how this will evolve.

If the average American thinks AI will get rid of most jobs, then most likely the opposite will happen. The average American isn’t very bright.

I agree with you there is a lot of unnecessary panic especially since the vast majority of job losses today are not due to AI. In fact most workers have not even had to use AI at their job.

Having said, it's fair to be nervous. Capitalists do not like losing money. We have never seen this level of investment into AI before. Capital owners will demand return on investments. Whether it comes in the form of job cuts and benefits as a result of AI being able to do those tasks or in other forms, we will all be affected at some point. Can I do my job? I have no idea? Can it do yours, I have no idea either? However, these capital owners are not going to invest trillions of dollars and still keep the same headcount. Humans are expensive. You need to give them healthcare. You need to give them annual leave etc. This is an expense the AI investors will love to get rid off.

All am I saying, while it's not time to panic, let's also not be naive in thinking that trillions will be invested and investors won't expect massive returns in result.

They made a foolish investment. They know it already but they keep shoveling money into AI because they have to show those quarterly returns and the bubble is still bubbling. They're hoping to get bailed out when it all implodes.

It's just like real estate. Big companies overinvested in CRE that no one wanted, and kept doing it long after it was clear vacancies were too high, and then made a big stink about RTO to try to recoup some of their stupid investment. Stop bailing these people out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

This 100%! We went from over $200k a year between my husband and myself to about $50k (and that’s generous) with two job losses. We have masters degrees and good contacting jobs, late 40s. ACA kills us every month to write a $1,500 check to cover our family of 4 and no prospects in sight for FT work so we are making do with two PT jobs. We still feel fortunate to have not been in debt when it happened but each month we get a little closer and one big event will do us in. We are like most every professional person that didn’t see this coming. Adjusting to a lower standard of living and not burying our head in the sand has been the only thing we feel we have control over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the white collar jobs that are disappearing won’t be coming back. All most everyone needs to adjust to a lower standard of living.

I wonder what the narrative would have been during the financial crisis if everyone was active on social media.

Everything is very “sky is falling” regarding jobs, but humans have worked since the beginning of time. There’s no telling what new jobs will be created or how this will evolve.

If the average American thinks AI will get rid of most jobs, then most likely the opposite will happen. The average American isn’t very bright.

Agreed.