They Ain't Hiring
The Labor Market Is Back to Pre-Affluent America
“Hold on to what you got.”
More and more that’s the guidance I provide discontented workers whom I coach. Yes, the organization is toxic. Yes, there’s too much work. Yes, there’s no right to disconnect. And, maybe you’ve been promised a promotion which never came through.
LABOR MARKET RUNS OUT OF OPTIONS
The brutal reality is that there are few or even no options to the good job you have now. In Bloomberg, labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards documents that the hiring rate is at a low not experienced since The Great Recession: 3.3 percent. According to her that signals the labor market is in a recession.
FEAR IS REAL
Obviously power, post-COVID, has shifted to employers. Of course, there’s plenty of fear among the workforce. That’s posted on professional anonymous networks such as Reddit, Fishbowl, Blind and Glassdoor.
The gestalt represents circling back to pre-affluent times in America. As the oldest of boomers, I vividly recall my extended family always being wary of signs they’ll be “let go” - which was the term used back then. Their field of vision wasn’t career advancement. It was survivalist times. There was no financial reserve if were - another term back then - “between jobs.”
THE “MACHINE” CAN PROVIDE PROTECTION
Ironically - and this could reflect insight about the reach of the new Trump Administration - there was some kind of employment protection provided by then political powerhouse: the Frank Hague machine. If it seemed like your job was in danger, you pleaded with a Hague insider to “save” you.
To protect a job or to find one or to move up to a better job the route might be to reach into the Trump machine. Donald Trump is the man with the jobs. And the protection for those jobs.
YES, YOU CAN EARN A GOOD LIVING
How else to remain employed? If you’re boxed in a field losing jobs to cost efficiency, reduced demand and AI, it’s a smart investment to reskill. Forget going for the MBA. Think certifications and licensing. Friends might teach you the ropes for the trades.
There’s also a flight into self-employment, especially for those over-50 who are already on the chopping block because of age bias. Here’s a how-to from Forbes and my Substack column on making that transition to self-employment.
A third solution to earning income from work is to accept that the career is over. Instead, approach making a good living through being post-career. That is, being semiretired, grabbing what work is out there. The stigma which used to be embedded in being post-career is letting up. One reason is that the shelf life of a career has become shorter. Pro Publica puts it at around age 50. Earnings currently could start to peak in the late 30s through your 50s.
MAKE YOUR MONEY GO FURTHER
After a divorce which wiped him out financially and the suicide of a son which unhinged him, Bob Wells found a mission. It was this: to help people survive financially and spiritually. His focus was on minimalist lifestyles for those whose shelter was a van or actual RV. How he does this is captured in the hit film “Nomadland.” He’s featured in the movie as himself.
Clients tell me that their struggling children have “Gone Wells.” They moved out of high-rent apartments and, as Well instructs, retrofitted vans.
Another path to affordable living is to relocate from HCOL (high cost of living) areas to LCOL (low cost of living) regions. The average rent in New York City is $3,858. The average rent in Tucson, Arizona is $1,006.
With my own version of a Bob Wells’ story, I pulled up roots in Metro Manhattan, headed out on I-95 west and started three enterprises in Tucson. What to beware of in relocation is the availability of and access to healthcare. Some LCOL areas such as Tulsa, Oklahoma offer a lot in terms of work and culture but it could take months to get in to consult with a primary care physician.
A third strategy, which you can use in-place is to cut out non-essentials such as vacations. Instead plan a day trip which doesn’t require bunking overnights in motels. Bring your own food. The need for a second car can be filled with e-bikes and mopeds. Buying new retail? That’s so first decade 21st century. Thrift stores stock used designer brands.
SO MANY OTHERS WERE IN THIS PICKLE
This isn’t the first upheaval in how people earn a living. Novelist Charles Dickens chronicles the shift from craftspeople operating from a home base to having to work communally in factories. That’s where the machines were in the Industrial Age.
My parents got through The Great Depression. I made it through the unmarketability of a Ph.D. and the later collapse of the industry in which I had been a kind of star.
You will find a way. It’s a blessing for a Bob Wells to be there for you. Yes, reach out for insight and concrete leads for work – and survival.