Laid Off After 30 Years At The Same Company - Functionally Unemployed

There are a couple of key components that are making the job market in America as bad as we have ever seen, guys, that hardly ever get talked about. And we're going to talk about some of these things in detail. One of them is going to be functional unemployment. And the other thing we're going to talk about is ghost jobs, because the reality is like 20%, maybe even more, of all of the job listings you see online these days are fake. And when you really dig into these things, it starts to make a lot of sense on why people are having such a hard time finding a job and why, even though the unemployment rate is still super low, people are broke and people need to work multiple jobs and do gig work and all of these things. So first, functional unemployment. What is that? I have talked about this before on the channel. Functional unemployed means that you are involuntarily working part-time or maybe you are earning poverty level wages or less than $26,000 a year annually. So basically, if you have been out of work for too long, meaning six months or longer, you're no longer counted as unemployed, or you're involuntarily working multiple part-time jobs, that counts as being functional unemployed. Or if the job you have just pays so low that you are below the poverty line, that also means you are functionally unemployed. And it turns out that 24.9% of America's workforce is now functionally unemployed. That is a quarter, guys. I mean, how is that a lot different than being completely unemployed? How is it different when you have no job versus the job you have or the jobs you're working isn't enough to pay the bills? I guess the only difference is at least you're making some money versus no money. But when it's not enough, does it really matter that much? Because on the surface, everything looks good, right? In July, the nation's unemployment rate went from 4.2% to 4.1%. And yet all of that reduction was due to people dropping out of the workforce in record numbers. So the functional unemployment number is actually the true rate of unemployment, okay? That's what that is. We're seeing functional unemployment move higher in this country at the same time labor force participation rate moving lower. And if it continues like this, it might suggest that the labor market is losing a lot more strength than what we're being told by these headline numbers. Because if the labor market were truly strong, we should see a situation where you have good jobs and wages going up that are bringing people into the workforce, not making people drop out of the workforce. This is a huge warning that people are just not finding the opportunities that they need in order to make it in America today. I'm not saying there aren't any opportunities out there, but a lot of people are not being matched with the opportunities that they're looking for. We also just saw how the July jobs numbers came in and we lost 23,000 jobs in July and another 120,000 jobs or so were revised downward over the previous couple of months. But yet the unemployment numbers continue to look strong. Do you think that's a coincidence? Absolutely not. This is all by design. This is how these things are set up to make it look good. And then we've had a problem for a long time, which is that wages have not been keeping up with inflation. We're not going to dig into that much because we've talked about that a lot in recent videos, but that is yet another problem with the job market. But as if it's not bad enough that 25 percent of the workforce cannot find proper employment opportunities, the ghost jobs listing problem is making the situation exponentially worse. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that approximately 19 percent of the positions advertised on digital job boards during the second quarter were considered ghost jobs. That means nearly one out of every five advertised positions received applications but produced no meaningful hiring activity, such as an interview, unemployment test, or an actual hire. So you have a bunch of people out there, millions of people who are functionally unemployed or actually are unemployed, who are chasing jobs that don't exist. And then to make matters worse, these ghost job listings go up on the job boards and then they're up there for a bunch of applications. And then what do they do? They take it down. And then a couple weeks later, that same job listing, the fake job listing, is back again. And this creates the impression that the job market is just abundant with opportunities out there, but the reality is much different. I don't know, guys, you let me know if you've been looking for a job out there, if 19 percent of these listings are fake or it's a much higher percentage. I would assume it's more, but it's also hard to tell because of how AI is involved with creating job listings and filtering through resumes and how people are using AI for the same. It might be hard to tell which ones are fake and which ones are real just by the sheer amount of submissions that these jobs that are real actually get. You might apply to a job and never hear anything back. This is extremely common. People fill out hundreds or sometimes even thousands of these applications and never get a response. And then they say, well, this doesn't mean that all of these listings are intentionally fraudulent. A company might cancel a position, freeze its hiring budget, or decide to fill the job internally, but the application is still out there. But it wastes people's time. You know, this is the other thing about the internet these days and how things like this work is that before I remember when I was looking for my first job and I was 16, none of this stuff ever existed. You didn't have internet job boards and LinkedIn and monster.com or all these job places to look for things online. For the most part, people still look for jobs in the newspaper. It was word of mouth or they just put a for hire sign on the window and people would go in and apply. And that's how I always found all of my jobs when I was still in the workforce and working regular jobs. And none of those jobs were great, but at least they were all real. At least when you would open up the newspaper, you would see jobs that are real. Yeah. Sometimes you might call or apply for something for a position that's already been filled, but you think companies are going to waste money putting out paid advertisements in a newspaper for jobs that don't exist. No, but because everything is free and cheap now, these companies have nothing to lose. You know, you have something to lose. You can lose your time, wasting your time applying for jobs that don't exist, but the companies, what do they have to lose? Nothing. In fact, they have everything to gain. They can harvest your data with all of your resume info and turn around and sell that to data brokers. They can make a huge extra income from just doing something like that, or they can just keep all that information on the side and call people when they actually need to hire somebody. So it all works out in the employer's favor by doing this. And then what incentive is there to remove an old job listing or continue to worry about which positions have been filled or not? They have nothing to lose by keeping these job listings up. This story highlighted a woman, 44 years old, who's a marketing professional and her last job ended in May of 2025. And since then, she has applied for more than 3,000 jobs. I don't even know how you can humanly do that. Meanwhile, you've got people like this who've been out of work for over a year, who is running out of savings. You know, she had $40,000 saved. That's a really respectable emergency fund, especially in these days, guys, when people are essentially broke and living off of debt. So kudos to this woman for having money. But after more than a year of being unemployed, that money is almost gone. She's already reduced the amount of money she spends on food, and she's preparing to move in with her dad in order to stretch whatever money is left over. And this is what the unemployment crisis looks like beyond that 4.1% unemployment rate. That's why this number is essentially bogus. And the longer people are out of work for, the more desperate they become. So what do they do? They start applying for work that's outside of their industry. They start lowering their salary expectations and lose a lot of their dignity along the way. And look, I get it. People need to do what they got to do to find work. And if you're serious about keeping a roof over your head and food on the table, then you just got to do what you got to do. No shame in that. But this is what the everyday American is being reduced to right now. And every single time I see a joker in the comments write something about how good the economy is, they always quote that low unemployment rate. So they must be completely ignorant to the fact that 25% of people don't have a real job and don't really make any money or enough money to actually matter in this economy or keep up with the cost of living. That's a huge problem. And then anybody who's looking for a job can't actually get one. And then some of these companies are even admitting that we'll put up job listings just to get a pipeline of candidates. Just like I was saying earlier, they might not actually need an employee right now, but they want to collect resumes and have things ready in case a position becomes available later. So they're just covering their own position. Or other companies, they might just be looking for a dream candidate and they're not actively trying to fill an immediate opening, but they leave the advertisement online to see who applies. Nice. So they're just playing with people's livelihood at this point. Also, these ghost job listings make the companies look a whole lot healthier on paper. It looks like the business is growing. A business with a dozen job openings can look financially healthy and optimistic, even when it's quietly reducing staff that it already has, and everything's actually frozen. That's the issue with everything in this economy today, is it's just too easy to fake everything, guys. Because of the internet, because of AI, because of how free and cheap everything is, it's so easy to fake things and make everything look better than it is. That has been how this entire economy has been operating for who knows how many years now. And it's been getting worse and worse every year, the more powerful AI gets. Another problem from these ghost job listings, they actually use this as leverage against their current employees. Current employees are made to believe that there are a ton of people looking for their exact job and this leads people to being overworked and being coerced into doing things they don't want to do, whether it's taking extra shifts or working longer hours or taking a bit of a pay cut or whatever, in order to keep your job, so to speak. And sometimes that pressure could be real, but other times it can be completely fabricated by the company to just pressure you into doing what you don't want to do. And they even admit right here, there's also concerns that companies use applications to collect information. Every resume contains a person's experience, current employer, location, education, salary expectations, and contact information. In the age of AI and the internet, personal data is like the new digital gold, guys. It's not Bitcoin, it's your data. Unfortunately, this video is not sponsored by Delete.me, but you guys know that they've been a longtime sponsor of mine and that's exactly why, to fight back against things like this. And then we have to look at the official job openings, which is also a huge lie because of all these ghost jobs. The labor department reported that there are 7.4 million job openings in June. And that sounds like a huge number, but it doesn't tell us how many openings will actually produce a job. Now that is a cool car. How about that guys? 1967 Pontiac Firebird for sale. 70k miles. I might have to pick that up. They're only supposed to report positions that could start within 30 days and for which they're actively recruiting candidates for. And ghost jobs aren't supposed to be included. That means the actual number of jobs that are available in this country is completely unknown. But just like every other government figure, you can be sure that it is overestimated. If they're telling you it's 7.5 million job listings, you might as well cut it in half. I think when it comes to the positive things like that, you can always cut the government numbers in half. And when it comes to the negative things like inflation, and they tell you it's at 3.4%, you might as well double it and say it's at 7 or 8. I think that's the best way to really look at government statistics, guys. That's not a conspiracy theory. It's because of how this data is collected and manipulated to the hilt. Everybody's all in love with AI and how easy it is to make a resume and apply for these jobs. But guess what, man? All this technology has made applying for a job a lot easier, but getting hired a lot harder. So congratulations. We all just made life harder for ourselves. Sounds wonderful, right? Wasn't AI supposed to do the opposite? That's what I always heard. Companies are using AI to screen all of the applications and resumes that come in before a person ever even sees them. And somebody who's well-qualified for a job might be automatically rejected because their resume doesn't contain the right keywords, or because their previous job title doesn't perfectly match the employer's requirements. And because they can get so many applications and resumes from people, it's easy to just disqualify so many of them and just narrow it down to whoever does have the right metadata in their application. It's a joke. Some local governments are trying to do something about these ghost jobs. Like in New York and Pennsylvania, for example, they have some legislation proposed over there where they're going to require employers to provide accurate hiring timelines and remove advertisements after positions have been filled. And the proposed fines could range anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000. I don't think that's a bad idea. I think that's a pretty good idea considering where we're at with this. In New York, they're looking to fine people $2,500 for every digital platform or print publication where the outdated advertisement exists. So let's look at how this affects a real person in real life, guys. There's a woman 66 years old who spent 16 months recently looking for work. She was laid off from a soybean processing plant in South Carolina. She started to worry after a couple of months of looking for a job in this environment that she might be struggling financially for the rest of her life. She spent 29 years working for this company. So when you're there that long, you don't think you're ever going to lose the job. And so this woman is affected by both of these headline stories we're talking about. Not only the ghost jobs and applying for jobs for 16 months before actually landing a new role, but also she fell into the functionally unemployed category. Because when you are unemployed for more than six months, you are no longer counted in the government's unemployment numbers and you are functionally unemployed. Even if she was working, like say she was driving for Uber or something, she was making an extra $15,000 a year on the side, she would still be in that functionally unemployed category. Then of course, there's all the age discrimination. The older you are, the harder it is to land a new job. A lot of employers are worried about how much health you have in you and your salary expectations or whether you have the actual skills needed to perform the job. So there's a lot of ageism with the job market too. So where she lives in South Carolina, you are eligible to collect unemployment for 20 weeks and she was getting $270 a week, nowhere close to what somebody would need in 2026 to replace an actual income. She was also receiving about $830 a month in survivor benefits from her former husband who died in 2020. So she was trying to survive on basically a little over a thousand bucks a month. She says retirement wasn't an option. She had to continue working because she hadn't saved enough for retirement. Plus she still had the cost of housing, food, insurance, healthcare, transportation, all of which is rising right now. But after 16 long months, she did eventually find a new job. She was hired by the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department. Her salary is slightly higher now than it was at $17.40 an hour. So it's not great money, especially in 2026. So this woman's 66 years old and you want to know what her advice is to the younger people out there who are just getting started in their careers or maybe looking for work. Here's what she says, guys, save money because an unexpected layoff can happen to anyone. Also, she says not to give up even when the search becomes humiliating and financially devastating. I try to tell people this all the time on the channel, but I just like to hear that it's coming from somebody else who is older and has been around the block a few more times than I have, but the advice remains the same. Save money, guys. You don't know when something like this could happen to you. And then people will say, well, why save money, Michael, when the Fed can just print it endlessly. And I get it. I understand that sentiment, which is also why you should probably buy gold and silver with whatever savings you have to preserve that purchasing power of the And also not giving up. I think younger generations are just too quick to give up these days. Younger generations were born basically with a cell phone or iPod or computer in their hand from day one. And that has led a lot of young people to believe that everything needs to happen instantly or it's not worth pursuing or it's just never going to happen. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Life is getting harder in a lot of ways, even though it's gotten easier in some ways. But like I said earlier, this technology, even though it makes it easier to apply for jobs, makes it harder to get one. So things are actually getting tougher, especially when you have all these fake listings out there and manipulated employment data to make things look great. But it doesn't mean you should give up. In fact, I think you should run the other direction. If you're having a hard time finding a job and it's been a few months, you should look at what can I do? What kind of skills do I have where I can start making my own money? Even if it just starts out as a little side hustle, earning a few extra hundred dollars a month, it is better than sitting around and waiting for somebody to call you and hoping and praying that you land a new job sometime soon. And consumer sentiment reflects all of this. I will just end it with this, guys. The consumer confidence index from the conference board, the reading we just got for August, slipped again, which is showing the weakest reading since January at 89.4 points. And this consumer sentiment index measures consumers' six-month outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions. And all of these things felt more and more negative. Consumers now are more pessimistic about business conditions and the labor market over the next six months than they were previously. I mean, is that really a huge surprise given everything we just talked about? I wouldn't be surprised if this consumer sentiment index continues to fall regarding the future of the economy and hiring and labor market. But what I would take away from this video, if I was somebody struggling right now to find work and just have stable employment, is that it is tougher than ever out there, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. And I would also go against the grain, guys. Everybody's filling out hundreds or thousands of these applications online. Get some footwork out there. Go out to actual businesses, places you would want to work. Ask to speak to the manager. Ask them if they're hiring. Fill out an application on the spot. They might interview you on the spot. That's how I used to get most of my jobs. You know, I'm sure that tactic will still work today. You're going to avoid any ghost listings that way. If they're actually hiring, they're going to say, yes, we're hiring. Would you like to apply? If they're not hiring, they're going to say, no, not right now. Maybe in a couple of weeks, check back with us, whatever. You're going to get real information rather than all this online garbage that is all fake. Like get out there into the world and actually do something. Don't just sit there and wait for the phone to ring. That is like the worst thing you could possibly do in this age today. Or like I've said before, look into getting into your own business. I cannot sit here and tell you what you should do or what kind of business it should be. Everybody's skills and abilities are different, but just know that there are more opportunities for that than ever before because of the internet and AI. So use it to your advantage to actually help you maybe start a business rather than just sit around waiting for the phone to ring. So if you 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.