The Job Losses Have Been MUCH WORSE THAN WE’VE BEEN TOLD

Today I'm in Flamingo Park in the heart of South Beach and I figured I'd do a lap around the track with you guys and then we'll hit the park afterwards and see some things. Something different. But one trend that I noticed that I want to point out with the current job market is how they're basically firing everyone and getting rich from it. And that seems to be the new playbook moving forward. And everybody's job is going to be at stake. Because people who have been with companies for multiple decades, we're talking 10, 20 or even 30 years, are suddenly being forced out and losing their jobs. And also, if you're lucky enough to keep your job, you might even be in a situation where your employer is asking to take a pay cut right now, not a pay raise. And so the job market is not cooling down. It's definitely not stabilizing. It is in all-out collapse at this moment. Millions of people are being pushed out of their job and are forced to make less money at a time when life costs more than ever. You're hearing the same story from people all over the place that I've been out of work for months. Some people it's even years at this point. And the most recent wave of layoffs that we've been seeing in this country is kind of unprecedented, guys. It really hasn't been this bad since the situation we had back in 2008. Amazon just had 14,000 people laid off. Their goal is to have 600,000 people gone by 2033. UPS so far, they've lost 48,000 people this year. Target and GM, thousands of people gone. Verizon, they just announced that they were laying off 20,000 and then they lowered it to 13,000. That's still, man, it's a lot of people. The status quo for a lot of these employers is they come out in public and they say, well, we value our employees. And the next thing you know, they're cutting everybody as much as they can in order to increase efficiency is what they say. And this is all happening while many of these corporations are making billions of dollars and they still cut staff. Why are they doing this? Well, it's because Wall Street rewards it. Every time you see these companies announce major layoffs without fail, their share prices and their stock prices go up. Look what happened with UPS, guys. 48,000 people gone so far this year and then their stock jumped 13% the same day they announced that. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so because you see this happen with every company out there. Amazon did the same thing. Verizon did the same thing. This is part of the playbook now. The uncomfortable truth is that a lot of these companies, they want people to be suffering right now. They want people to be scared for their future because that's how they get leverage over you. That's how they're able to offer you lower pay in lieu of losing your job. Or if you have lost a job and you're out there looking, they know people are desperate and they know that they can offer you less. You know, that's the truth. Because when you're afraid to lose everything, then you'll accept anything. But here's the part that nobody talks about. A lot of these layoffs don't show up in the headlines at all. You just see the big ones. You know, the 10,000 here, 15,000 there, 20,000 there. But companies also cut part-time contractors, gig workers, and have what's called performance exits. And these are not counted in the official layoff numbers. They don't trigger warn notices or anything like that. They don't make it into the news. And when you include all job types in these job losses, we've actually lost 13.8 million jobs so far in America, guys. I thought the number was staggering when it was at a million already, considering we've already surpassed last year. But those are just the official numbers. When you account everybody who's being affected and is seeing their work situation deteriorate, it is 13.8 million. And that's no wonder why things seem to be worse for the average person than what's reported on the news or what the official numbers reflect. And these companies aren't even hiding it anymore, like Amazon, you know? They tried to hide it when a couple of months ago, they had the leak come out saying they wanted to get rid of 600,000 people. And then, of course, they have their PR people go out there and say, well, that's not really what we meant. This was all taken out of context, blah, blah, blah. But in reality, it's exactly what they meant. And even though AI can't replace a lot of jobs yet, it's definitely not there. It's not smart enough. We don't have the technology. A lot of these companies are getting rid of people anyways right now because they believe that we're not very far away from replacing a lot of those jobs with AI, and they're willing to take that chance. And if you're somebody with experience right now, or you're a highly paid position, you're pretty much first in line on the chopping block because that's how companies can save the most money, eliminate the people who are making the most, at the same time, replace the entry-level jobs with AI and don't hire anyone new. That's a recipe for profitability going up pretty substantially, and that's what they're after, of course. And that's why all of the college students that are graduating right now with degrees have basically useless paper on their hands. Like if you're entering this job market right now, and you're not entering a really high demand field of work right now, it's going to be very difficult out there. And overseas, it's actually even worse than it is here. Like in the UK, for example, they have 1.2 million new college graduates competing for only 17,000 jobs. Here in America, we think it's bad that there's one job available for every person looking for a job. That's like a gravy train compared to over there. Over there, you're talking 0.001 job available for every person looking for one. So I don't think it really gets worse than that. And then if you're somebody older and you lose a job right now, like say you're in your 50s or older than that, good luck getting hired again after you lose a job because ageism is a real thing in the workplace these days. And the hiring software from Workday is already being sued for allegedly filtering out any applications from people over 40 years old. But the worst part is a lot of people don't have the money to retire. And if you lose a job in your 50s, and it's almost impossible to get another one, what are you supposed to do? And that's why the job market is so bad right now, because you don't have a lot of jobs available and you kind of have everybody competing for the same jobs. And at the same time, most of the jobs that are being created in restaurants, hospitality, and in healthcare are jobs that either don't pay enough for people to actually survive on or a lot of people aren't qualified for if you don't have a degree in nursing or healthcare or whatever. And remember, this is all happening simultaneously as the cost of living has been exploding. Rent and insurance payments have been going up faster than wages. Basic necessities are now becoming luxuries for a lot of people. And people have to work harder than ever to essentially go backwards. We're continuously being lied about inflation. The Fed has had this pretend fight on inflation over the past three years where they haven't done much about it. Yeah, has it went down from the official number from 9% to 3%? Sure. But they promised they were going to get us to 2% and we're hanging out at 3% and cutting interest rates. That's the reality. And what they never mentioned to anybody is that prices on everything never go down, okay? They're targeting a 2% inflation rate, even though they're not there. But that just means that prices are going to continue going up 2% every year here on out. And since we don't even know what the real numbers of inflation really are, most people estimate that their cost of living has gone up anywhere between 50% and 70% just in the past five years. And as if inflation is not already bad enough, some companies are even manufacturing their own inflation. We've heard a lot about greedflation over the past few years. You're buying less products for more money. You see this in smaller cans, smaller jars at higher prices. But also Tyson Foods, for example, they were caught creating their artificial pork shortage just to jack up prices for a decade already. And what did they get penalized for this? Basically just pocket change compared to what they made. And the executives at the company are literally bragging in their earnings calls about passing the cost along to consumers. So it's like they can kind of do whatever they want. You know, when these companies get fined minuscule amounts, you know, a few million dollars or whatever for being caught doing something like this, this is nothing compared to the amount of money they make. Corporations use the same tactics to pollute the environment because it's cheaper to do that than it is to follow the law. And now people could be facing something even more scary when it comes to pay and not getting the pay that you should be getting because of AI and because of algorithms like Uber has already figured out using AI, how they can identify which workers are struggling the most financially and offer them less pay. And if major corporations start using that kind of tactic in order to get ahead, this is bad news. And these AI programs can monitor everything, guys. They can monitor your salary history. They can monitor how fast you respond to emails. They know when you're desperate. And as unemployment continues to go up, corporations get more and more powerful. And typically what you're seeing them do is you'll see Amazon, right? They laid off 14,000 people. But then what they do is they quietly rehire a lot of those people, but at lower pay. And that's how they continually increase their profit margins. And because people are desperate, people are looking for work, they'd rather take that lower pay opportunity than have nothing at all. And this cycle keeps perpetuating. But of course, the executives don't have to worry about that because Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, he made $40 million in 2024. And guess what? His pay is tied directly to Amazon stock performance. And guess what happens every time they announce layoffs? That's right. The stock price goes up, which means so does the CEO pay. I mean, how did we get to a place in America where companies are actually incentivized to treat people as horribly as possible and get financial gain from this? And like I've mentioned before, what is the end game here? You know, if they get rid of everybody and enough people are broken, desperate, and don't really have money, who's going to be the customers of all of these corporations? Like who's going to continue buying everything that they make? The only reason these companies have any business at all is because people still have enough money to buy things from them. But what happens when that's no longer the case? And that's why in the most recent September jobs report, we're seeing that more and more people are holding more than one job. It's almost a necessity in this environment. You know, they came out and bragged that, oh, look, it was 119,000 new jobs for the September numbers that will be revised down. That's all but a guarantee at this point. But that doesn't mean you have 119,000 more people working. It just means that they've created a lot of jobs that a lot of people, like I said, don't want because they don't pay enough. A lot of these are restaurant and hospitality jobs, or they are in health care, which many people just are not qualified for. But according to economists, the jump in the restaurant hiring is actually a sign that we are in a slow economy because workers are just trying to hold on. When you see a lot of people starting to take restaurant jobs, that's usually like the job of last resort that people take in order to bring in extra cash. It's a side hustle. Maybe you're working part time at a restaurant on top of your full time job. The data shows us that about 5.5% of workers have more than one job right now, and that number has been growing for years. And it actually went down a little bit during the pandemic, but it has been consistently on the rise, almost back to the level that we saw in 2008. And basically everything is back to the levels we saw in 2008. And in some cases, it's actually even worse. And of course, the number one reason that so many people are hanging on to two jobs right now or more is because they need the extra money. One job is not enough to pay the bills like it used to be. And also, I think it gives people more security as well. Let's face it. If you have two sources of income rather than one, if you do get let go in this economy, at least you have something to fall back on. So it could be a great preservation strategy as well. And this could also be the reason why we saw the unemployment numbers go up in September, because a lot of the jobs that have been created went towards people who are already working, people who already have a job. People are taking a second or third job right now. And at the same time, the job losses just continue to spiral in November. So far, according to ADP, there was 13,500 jobs lost in the private sector alone in the first week of November. So that means if it continues at that pace, that's going to be at least 54,000 job losses if it continues at that pace through the end of this month. And that's only including the private sector. And ADP doesn't cover all of the payrolls. The real number is going to be a lot higher. And the reason why that's a big deal is because that is a 20% increase in job losses from just the prior four-week period. From just one month ago, things have gotten 20% worse. And to show you just how much things have deteriorated, like in October, they reported a net 42,000 job gain in the private sector. And it is the holiday season. Hope everybody enjoyed their Thanksgiving and found something to be thankful for, especially with how bad things are right now, because this is the time of year when people actually have the opportunity, for the most part, to get a little extra leg up because a lot of companies hire for seasonal work. And that's an opportunity for people to jump in and make a little extra money this time of year. But I saw a story of a guy from Indiana who has been applying to all different types of jobs in his area for seasonal work. And he's hearing nothing back, guys, absolutely nothing. And this is the time of year where, in the past, you could usually walk into a store and get a job within a week if they're hiring for seasonal employees because they need the help right now, ASAP. This guy is 41 years old. He works part-time in retail. And every single year, he picks up a seasonal job to help cover the bills and buy gifts for family. And it's never been a problem until now. He's applied to CVS, Best Buy, and pretty much every retailer in his area and got absolutely nothing back, no interviews, no callbacks, not even a sorry, we filled the position reply. And this is a bit of a surprise because I even remember reporting on this about a month and a half or two months ago in a prior video. The National Retail Federation expected to hire between 260,000 and 365,000 workers this year. But last year, it was 442,000. So the last time that holiday hiring was this low was right after the great financial crisis. Everything these days, guys, is mirroring what happened back then. It's either just as bad as it was then or actually even worse in a lot of cases. And a lot of retailers that expected to hire people are pulling back as well because they're seeing their sales numbers suffer. They're also scared of inflation. They're scared of unpredictable consumer spending right now and are part of the automation game as well, trying to replace you with robots and AI. And the government shutdown that we just had exacerbated the issue because a lot of the people who work in the government that were laid off were not out there spending money, especially at retailers for discretionary purchases. But the other half of the story is that there are seasonal jobs available, but the applications and the competition has absolutely exploded due to everybody looking for the extra work. There seems to be a wave of people out there trying to all apply for these holiday job openings. You can have 200 people applying for a single cashier job right now that maybe used to get 10 applications, guys. I mean, that's kind of unbelievable. I haven't been paying attention to this stuff my entire life, but I have been, of course, in the loop ever since I started working when I was 16 years old. And I remember after 2008 happened, it was pretty difficult to get a job. A lot of places just weren't hiring, especially if you didn't have experience for whatever they were looking for. That's probably a walk in the park compared to what people are dealing with right now. And remember, back in 2008, we weren't dealing with essentially record high inflation either. So now the most recent data is showing us that retail job openings as of October dropped 22% compared to one year ago. And that's a huge signal that companies expect a weaker holiday season. A lot of these retailers are essentially thinking, there's not going to be a big surge in sales this year, so we don't need the extra people like we normally do. And they could be right. I think there's still going to be a surge in sales. It's probably not going to be a record year, but who knows? You never know. People still like to spend money they don't have. Anything can happen. But not even the retailers who are usually optimistic about everything are thinking that's what's going to happen. You know, it used to be in years past, you had big retailers like Target and Walmart and other big stores announce their hiring of thousands of seasonal workers. But this year, it's basically been complete silence. Walmart says they might hire a few people here and there, but most of the extra hours are going to go towards existing employees, which is probably a good thing that they're doing. Because if you're already working there, it's not really fair to give the work to somebody else if the people working there are willing to take on it and they need the extra money as well. Also, stores just don't need the amount of people that they needed 15 to 20 years ago, guys. Like you have a big uptake in self-checkout that replaces a lot of cashiers. You have automated inventory systems now and smaller staff models, where they basically, you know, thin the herd and they have less people running the same stores. And this is the problem, because this is something that people have relied on for many years to make extra money this time of year when people need it the most. And now that that sort of safety net is going away, it's just going to make an already bad economy even worse. Even local toy stores that typically beef up their staff before the holidays, they're not hiring people either. The store Hobby Works, which is outside of Washington, D.C., they said that the tariffs plus the government shutdown forced them to delay their usual seasonal hiring. And that's probably one of the worst places to be considering so many government workers live in the Washington, D.C. area. And we've already seen what's happening to the housing market over there. It's essentially collapsing. And then spending goes way down too when people don't have the money. So essentially, when holiday hiring goes down, it tells you one thing about the economy, and that is businesses are not confident that they are going to see the sales that they need to actually hire these people to begin with. That leads to a situation where unemployment continues to tick up, layoffs increase and small businesses shrink or even go out of business. Let's face it. And it just makes this recession that we are already in even worse. And I wish I had better news for you guys going into the holiday season, but I'm just reporting the facts. This is the state of affairs right now. And you can either choose to acknowledge it and do something about it or pretend it's not happening and become a victim of it. So I always choose the first option. 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. Transcribed by https://otter.ai