Yeah, but half of employers pretend to pay

 Half of Your Employees May Be Pretending to Work, According to a New Survey

It’s called ‘ghostworking,’ and a recent poll of workers shows that it’s more prevalent than you think. 

... Fully 23 percent of people (nearly 1 in 4 workers) admitted to walking around the office with a notebook so that they look purposeful and busy, while 22 percent have typed away at their keyboard entering nonsense. Though it’s rarer, 15 percent have faked being on a phone call so they appear busy, and 12 percent scheduled nonexistent meetings so they had an excuse to not do real tasks. ... 47 percent of employees said they waste more time working from home, while 37 percent said they waste more time in the office. ...

An AI-induced economic collapse is coming in one to five years on the heels of millions losing their jobs to AI and on the spending of those millions drying up

 The silent bloodbath that's tearing through the middle-class and rapidly flipping the US economy on its head

... This time, it's not blue-collar and factory workers getting whacked — it's college graduates with white-collar jobs in tech, finance, law, and consulting.

Entry-level jobs are vanishing the fastest — stoking fears of recession and a generation of disillusioned graduates left stranded with CVs no one wants.

College grads are now much more likely to be unemployed than others, official data show.

Chatbots have already taken over data entry and customer service jobs. Next-generation 'agentic' AI can solve problems, adapt, and work independently. ...

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful AI firms, says we're at the start of a storm.

AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20 percent in the next one to five years, he told Axios. ...

Critics say universities are churning out graduates into a market that simply doesn't need them.

A growing number of young professionals say they feel betrayed — promised opportunity, but handed a future of 'AI-enhanced' redundancy. ...

 

Well, if spending collapses those blue-collar and factory workers won't have anything to do either, now will they?

Prices for everything might very well reset much lower in a deflationary spiral.

Imagining being in charge of addressing all that.

Trump has cut only 59k federal jobs since January, through May lol

 

The Donald Trump/Rush Limbaugh Dumb Ass Unemployment Rate in May 2025 climbed for a second consecutive month to 37.7%

 103.2 million eating, but not working.

 

Just 49.35% had a full time job in May 2025

 

The decline of worker hours in America

 In 1966 all the hours worked by all the full time and part time workers divided by the civilian employment level peaked at about 35.35 hours per worker per week. That's full time level work. That's prosperity.

The flood of Baby Boomers, especially Baby Boomer women under the influence of feminism and the social revolution of the 1960s, and also foreign born workers after the Immigration Act of 1965, into the labor markets after the mid-1960s reduced hours per week per worker by almost 11%, not forming a new stable bottom until the 1980s at about 31.5 hours per week.

Increased labor supply = fewer hours to go around = less prosperity.

By 1999, when peak Baby Boom had passed 40 years of age, hours per week had risen as high as 32.68 per worker per week. That was the end result of the good times kick-started by Ronald Reagan twenty years prior, which hit in four waves: 1984-85, 1989, 1995, and 1999.

But the whole subsequent period 2003-2019 inclusive fell apart.

Many, many troubles reduced hours worked per worker by almost 7% between 1999 and 2009, not the least of which were admission of China to the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the Great Recession.

Hours per week per worker have risen again as of 2022, but only to the old bottom, at around 31.57 per week.

Median real earnings per week are up just $38 since 1979.

Will that be As Good As It Gets?

 

 

 

Federal employment is 1.1% of civilian population in April 2025: This is the swamp billionaires want to drain

 The worst it ever got was 2.4% in December 1952 while Truman was still president.

The leisure class of state capitalism has to have something to complain about. 

 

As of April 2025, Trump's own government reports that just 26,000 federal employees have lost their jobs since January despite Elon Musk's Chain Saw Massacre ROFLMAO

 

49.4% worked full time in April 2025

 

Wei Tu Lo

37.54% eating but not working in Trump's America in April 2025

 

ADP private payrolls miss the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 120k new jobs by 48%

 

Private payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations

 

... the smallest gain since July 2024 ...

Tomorrow is a big day for economic reports: Core pce inflation and 1Q2025 real GDP

 The consensus estimate for tomorrow's core pce inflation number is 2.6% year over year in March, and 0.1% month over month. In February the actual numbers were 2.8% year over year and 0.4% month over month.

The consensus estimate for tomorrow's real GDP estimate is 0.4% vs. 2.4% actual the previous quarter. Yes, you read that right, 0.4%. GDPNow's final read on 1Q2025 out this morning is  . . .  -2.7%.

Yikes.

The ADP employment change will also be reported. Consensus is for +108,000 vs. +155,000 actual the previous month.

Nonfarm payrolls comes out on Friday. Consensus is for +130,000 for April vs. +228,000 actual in March.

High unemployment, high inflation, and high interest rates 6% or higher all at the same time plagued the country for six years 1975-1982, but we survived

 There were six years when all three, the unemployment rate, headline inflation, and 10-year US Treasury yield, were at 6% or higher on an average basis at the same time:

1975: 8.5%  9.14%  7.99%

1977: 7.1%  6.46%  7.42%

1978: 6.1%  7.62%  8.41%

1980: 7.2%  13.5%  11.43%

1981: 7.6%  10.37%  13.92%

1982: 9.7%  6.15%  13.01%.

 

In March 2025 unemployment was 4.2%, headline inflation was 2.4%, and the 10Y yielded 4.28%.

The current data set is no compelling case for reducing interest rates.  If Trump had confidence in his tariff regime, he wouldn't be clamoring for further reductions.

 

Fake job seekers flood companies hiring for fake jobs

 

Fake job seekers are flooding U.S. companies that are hiring for remote positions, tech CEOs say

Car manufacturing jobs, so-called good jobs, already don't pay enough to enable these Detroit auto workers to buy their own homes and have families, and they fear layoffs because of the tariffs

 The Wall Street Journal doesn't mention it here.

This guy's been working for the company for 10 years and he's still renting.

... Daniel Campbell, who maneuvers steel auto parts around a Stellantis factory north of Detroit, says he and many of his colleagues are worried about layoffs.

“I’m scared,” he said from his brick bungalow on the west side of Detroit, which he rents with two roommates. “We’re complaining about gas and eggs now. Who is going to be able to buy these cars that are already $80,000, and then you make it $90,000?”

The 46-year-old UAW member, who makes about $30 an hour, and one of his roommates have talked about trimming their spending, including eating out less and cutting clothing and electronics purchases. 

“There’s going to come a time where we’re not going to be able to go and spend,” he said. 

 At work, the assembly lines have been running faster in recent weeks as Stellantis has tried to stockpile parts ahead of the tariffs, Campbell said. He and his co-workers are running out of room to store the parts. ...

Just 49.08% had a full time job in 1Q2025

 

Donald Trump's dumb ass unemployment rate was 37.6% in 1Q2025

 

More people than ever were eating but not working in Donald Trump's America in 1Q2025, 102.657 million

 

Multiple job holders hit what only looks like a new high in Feb 2025 at 9 million not seasonally adjusted

 But as a percent of civilian population, the 3.3% current level still doesn't come close to the 1996 peak at 4.2%.

More Americans with college degrees are working multiple jobs, Fed report finds

 

 

Meanwhile in the real world full time employment as a percentage of population fell for a seventh consecutive month in Feb 2025 to 48.88% from 50.26% in July 2024

 That's the worst February reading since 47.51% in Feb 2021.