The REAL Reason You CAN’T FIND A JOB ANYMORE

Here I got a second Sonoma video for you guys. I am in downtown Sonoma today, here at Plaza Park. This is such a beautiful little town. Every time I come up here, I just love spending, you know, some time here. One thing I want to talk about with you today is when did getting laid off become a full time job? Because it used to be where you lost your job and then you're on unemployment maybe for a couple of weeks or a month tops, maybe two months. If things are really bad and then you're out looking for a new job and within a month or two, you landed your new gig. Well, that is not the case anymore. And anybody who's looking for a job these days can confirm what I'm telling you is true. Take this story, for example. Here's a woman who was laid off twice each time over a Google Meet. And Google Meet is just like an online meeting platform where you're face to face, just like Zoom, something like that. She was fired twice over Google Meet with no explanation either time. And after she got fired the second time, it led to her being unemployed for over a year, even though she was submitting 30 job applications per day. And I'm sure by now a lot of this is starting to sound familiar because I have gone over numerous stories already that are all kind of the same. So now, because this story is becoming so common and it's happening to so many different people, people are banding together over this. And there is now a substack and discord community called Laid Off. And it was created by this woman, Melanie Ehrenkranz, after she lost her job back in 2023. And what it is, is it features candid interviews that explore the personal side of layoffs, how they coped with being laid off and how they broke the news to their family and their spouse or whomever that they needed to tell and break the hard news to. And it's good that coping mechanisms for being laid off are starting to come out and help people figure out how to get through this, because honestly, I don't know, I wouldn't know what to do, guys. Like I've been fired a few times in my life back when I had normal jobs, but I never went that long without having a job. It was always I lost the job. And within a couple of weeks, I found something else. Even I remember like it was yesterday when I lost my first job in Miami. I literally applied to another place the next day and got hired the same day. So I got fired from one job the night before. And by the next night, 24 hours later, I was already working somewhere else. And that was in 2008, back when the economy was already in the gutter, which I think goes to show you that things are actually worse now, even if a lot of the numbers when it comes to unemployment and the jobs numbers don't look like it's worse now than they were back then. But just based on my own personal experience, and every time I read one of these stories, it sure seems like it is based on what people are going through, trying to look for work. I mean, it's to the point now where if people want to get a job, they have to do something kind of crazy to get noticed, right? Like this woman I talked about in the beginning who created the laid off substack. Well, she ended up getting a job after she created this banner on LinkedIn that said open to work. And then it went viral. And that's how she ended up ultimately getting noticed and getting a job is because she had to do something kind of crazy, you know, creating like almost one of those homeless banners. When you see somebody on the side of the road saying, you know, hungry, please help or willing to work for food or whatever, stuff like that. And that's what this woman did, but only on LinkedIn just so she could get noticed. So other people are turning towards social media posts. Like they put up viral Tik TOKs or things like that in order to try to get it noticed by an employer or at least go viral on social media. Maybe somebody will see it and say, Hey, I kind of like this person. Maybe we should give them a shot. And remember, it's very hard to stand out right now in the age of AI, because you have companies that use AI programs to sift through all of the job applications that are being submitted. And simultaneously you have people who are looking for work using different AI programs to submit a bunch of resumes and job applications on their behalf. So you have basically AI programs, weeding out AI programs, you know, and it makes me think if people want to get a job and if companies want to hire somebody and they're feeling frustrated, like, well, we can't find the right people because you know, it's so difficult to sort through all these job applications. I have a novel idea. Why don't you go back to doing all the interviews in person, not even zoom, not Google meet. Cause that can be faked. I've seen those on the news. They use AI programs to hide their identity and pretend they're somebody else in those online interviews. I'm talking face to face, sitting down in front of the other person, checking their ID, making sure that their credentials match up with who they say they are and giving people a shot based on that. Who would have thought, you know, luckily enough for me back when I had my last job, which was 2009 is the last time I had a job. Luckily back then, all the interviews were still being done in person. At least all the jobs I ever applied to. I never once had to do an online job interview or application or anything. Everything was still in person back then. But it's nice to know that people who are in this vulnerable position right now are banding together and kind of sharing their stories and helping each other understand that they're not alone. And this is happening to everybody right now. Not everybody, but you know what I mean? And something else that I learned about America's labor market today is that we have a shrinking labor force in this country. And that's kind of even more striking once we go over some of the details, especially when we look at where the job market is right now, because when the labor supply falls, the number of workers available to take a job also decreases, which leaves businesses scrambling to find people in order to fill their positions. And this might seem ideal for workers at first, when employers are fighting over the same people to hire. But then after a while, the companies just kind of give up and they adapt and they don't need those people anymore. And that's kind of where AI comes in. Hey, when was the last time you saw one of those? I know I haven't seen one in the wild in a long time. Let's see, 50 cents for a local call, two minutes for $1 worldwide. You can call anywhere for $1 for two minutes. It's not too bad. And also think about it like this. If there's fewer people who are working, then there's fewer people who are able to buy things, which means businesses all over start to struggle because people can't afford their products or services. But check this out. Since 2007, the number of new people entering the workforce has outweighed those exiting in 63% of the monthly jobs reports. But that trend has started to reverse over the past three months as the total number of people in the labor force has declined by 790,000 workers just from April through July. So that's a pretty big decline in just a few months. And they're saying right away, well, this is all due to the crackdown on immigration and border crossings. And so therefore we just have less workers than before, but I don't understand how that's relevant. Because if you've got somebody coming over here illegally, that doesn't even have the proper credentials to work and saying this somehow is a negative impact on the labor market. And suddenly these employers can't fill positions. I have a hard time believing that guys, because first of all, it's illegal to employ somebody who doesn't have the proper credentials to work. Right? So any company doing that could be punished legally. But then besides that you have all of these Americans who say that they can't find work. People are submitting 30 applications a day, or even thousands of applications throughout the course of the year and not able to find a job. So something doesn't smell right here to me. You're telling me the labor force is shrinking. It's making it difficult for employers to find people at the same time. The employees are saying we can't find a job and we're submitting thousands of applications and no one's even calling us back for an interview. Something's obviously wrong. And that goes back to what I said a little while ago. Hey, how about we just get back to having in-person interviews? I know it's not as efficient. Of course, you can't interview as many people in one day as you can online, but that's kind of the whole point, right? After interviewing five or six candidates, you're probably going to find somebody that's like, yeah, this is a good person for the job. You're hired. And then both parties are satisfied. That person got a job and the employer fills the job. And that's that. You know, this is another one of these examples in the world today of how we have created a problem for ourselves. You know, we used to have a system that worked. We had people that just went in, fill out a job application in person and got an interview at the same day or the next day or whatever, come back and see the manager in a few hours. And you're hired right to now to the point where everything has to be done online. And if it's not, then you don't exist. At the same time, you fill out thousands of applications and nobody calls you back. How is the new system better? You know, explain to me how that's better. Really. It seems like one of the biggest problems with everything these days when it comes to business and government jobs, you know, culture in general is just a fundamental lack of common sense anymore. Like nobody just has the common sense to do things the way that make the most sense. Let's make everything as complicated and convoluted as possible to the point where nothing works. Washington state is a state where actually they are losing the largest amount of construction jobs more than any other state in the entire country. Take a look at this. Between June of 2024 and 2025, Washington state lost approximately 11,300 construction jobs. According to data released by the Associated General Contractors of America, the chief economist for AGC says that there's no question that developers are pulling back right now. And additionally banks have tightened their lending practices, making it more challenging for developers to secure financing. And this is also a telltale sign that the housing market is starting to slow down tremendously right now. And one third of these job losses are all in the Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue region of Washington. And this part of the state is really starting to suffer right now because Seattle's office vacancy rate has soared to almost 30% due to its persistence of remote and hybrid work models. So you have less people in the office, which also means less people patronizing the downtown shops and restaurants, things like that, which means they end up not meeting as many people. And those people lose jobs and those businesses are not as successful. Anybody want a tandem bicycle? 1955 Schwinn, true classic. There's no price tag, but with the way things are going, you probably shouldn't buy it because the economy sucks. And because of how horrible the job market is right now and how many jobs are being lost, Americans are finally starting to pull back on their credit card spending. Here's a woman who ended up charging up to $72,000 in credit card debt. She has 28 credit cards and now her monthly payments just for her credit cards alone have swelled up to $2,800 per month. And only now she's putting all the credit cards away and saying enough is enough. Like that is more than most people's mortgage payment. Guys, can you think about that for a minute? $72,000 in debt gets you a mortgage payment when it comes to your monthly debt obligation for these credit cards. I mean, she did it all. She bought a $6,700 water heater. She spent $4,000 on Christmas gifts. She went on vacations to Miami and Orlando and she just bought whatever she felt like thinking, Hey, I'm gonna be able to pay this off one day. She even literally says here in this story that I saw credit cards as monopoly money. So far, she's been able to actually pay off $30,000 of the credit card debt. That's pretty good. You know, knocking it down from 72,000 down to 42,000, but still a lot of money right now. According to the New York fed, we have an outstanding credit card debt in this country at 1.21 trillion. So it's not like it stopped going up, right? People are still spending money on the credit cards, just not at as high of a rate as they were before. And that's likely because a lot of people just can't anymore. It gets to the point where you max out your cards. Like this woman who has 72,000 in debt, she might not even be able to spend more. You know, the credit card companies can turn off your spending if they feel like you're overextended. And another sign that people are taking a break from the credit cards is that there's been a surge in personal loans used lately to consolidate credit card debt. Personal loan originations jumped 18% in the first quarter from just a year ago, bringing the total balances to a record $257 billion. So you're just robbing Peter to pay Paul in this scenario. Now, yeah, it's probably still a better deal because on a personal loan, you might have a seven or nine or 10% interest rate versus a 25% interest rate on your credit card. So it's still better to shift the debt over there, but not if you haven't learned your lesson, not if you don't understand the spending habits that got you into this mess to begin with. And these bad habits have been lingering for a while because the share of Americans who are only making the minimum payments on credit cards is near a record high, according to the federal reserve bank of Philadelphia. And this is exactly what I was talking about, because take a look at this. In a separate trans union study, they found out that while borrowers who consolidate credit card debt into personal loans, initially reduced their credit card balances by an average of 57%. Many of those people refill those cards within just 18 months. You know why? Because people don't understand how they got there to begin with. They think that they can just keep spending like that. And somehow miraculously they're going to be able to pay it down. Like some people just never learn guys. And the problem is even if you're trying to be good, even if you're trying to do everything right and pay down debt and save money, people can be tempted to go and spend money on something they don't have. If the right offer comes along and you know what I'm talking about, we've all seen it where you're going through your inbox and then all of a sudden there's this impulse purchase that comes up, you know, a deal that you just can't pass up. Right? For me, it's usually something with guitar stuff. Like last year, I bought $1,000 guitar for $600. It's hard to turn down 40% off, right? Because you're just never going to get a deal like that again. For women, it's usually some kind of fashion item or jewelry or clothing or whatever. We all have our vices. But the thing that separates people who are able to get ahead financially and the ones who continue to fall behind is really just self-discipline guys. It comes down to, can you hold back from making a purchase that you know you shouldn't make even when the deal is amazing? And that's unfortunately what you have to do when times are tight and money is scarce. And there's some evidence recently that a lot of companies are using something called surveillance pricing in order to get you to pay even more for the stuff that you can't even afford to buy. The FTC recently just came out with a warning that different companies might be using consumer data to set different online prices for the same product. Kind of like that story we talked about with retail stores, where they're able to have digital price tags at different stores like Target, Walmart, some grocery stores are already starting to do this, right? And so when they have this different type of pricing model, then shoppers can be charged more based on your location, demographics, shopping habits, or browsing and purchase history. And obviously these companies are always collecting your data, which is why today's video is sponsored by Delete.Me because Delete.Me helps you protect your personal data. So what is Delete.Me? Delete.Me is a hands-free subscription service that will remove your personal information that's being sold online. And Delete.Me's privacy experts will remove you from hundreds of data brokers all year long. And it's important to keep your subscription active because they will continually run these searches and scans. And by keeping the scans active, you keep your information private. And these data brokers have some very sensitive information like your name, your address, your marital status, your past addresses, your relatives' info, court records. So if you're interested in protecting your sensitive data, sign up for Delete.Me today and make sure you get 20% off your Delete.Me subscription by using my link down below at joindelete.me.com or use the QR code on the screen. These companies are collecting everything like your addresses, your homeownership information, parental status, your purchase history. They analyze whether someone is an impulse buyer or a cautious shopper, whether or not you pay off your credit cards or not each month. And there's actually been real examples of this happening. And this is what they found. A grill at the home improvement store Lowe's increased by $70 when the zip code was changed just 12 miles away. At Home Depot, a pressure washer showed higher prices in Hawaii and Guam, even though location settings weren't adjusted. On Amazon and Walmart, different third-party sellers offered the same TV at prices ranging from under $900 to over a thousand dollars. And of course these big companies like Target and Walmart, they claim they're not using the surveillance pricing at all. Home Depot says prices might vary by local store selection. Amazon pointed to independent sellers setting their own prices and other companies like Lowe's and Best Buy and Kohl's and Chewy and several airlines never responded to the media inquiries about the surveillance pricing. So clearly based on these answers, you can see that the way that they're kind of brushing this off and blaming it on somebody else, that they probably are doing it. They're just never going to admit it. So you kind of have to be your own internet police. You know, you have to use a VPN if you want to change your location and make sure you're not being charged extra because of where you're located right now. You have to use services like delete me in order to make sure the data brokers do not have all your personal information, because the more of that information that's out there, the more of it gets sold to these companies that can be used against you with surveillance pricing. It is just insane guys. And really what people should be doing is they should be just really putting their spending in check and slowing down right now and taking a step back and looking at it like, can I really afford this? Am I really able to pay for everything that I'm spending money on right now? And if the answer is even slightly unsure, then you need to do a major pullback and do a reassessment of your budget and understand where your money's going. So you don't end up like this person in $72,000 of credit card debt and even worse end up with no job to be able to pay for it. So if you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to the channel. And if you don't want to wait for my next video to come out, check out this one on the screen right over here, and I'll see you in the next one.