Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 103 posts

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#11

Post by treyd »

jmathai wrote: post #7
petcat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

Those who are still employed by my local grocery store don't seem too motivated to do their jobs. It's an unfortunate but foreseeable scenario that expedites the problem where people prefer self-checkout. I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit.

> I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit.

This is not legal, executives of publicly traded companies are required to put maximizing shareholder value above all other considerations.

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#12

Post by codyb »

jmathai wrote: post #7
petcat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

Those who are still employed by my local grocery store don't seem too motivated to do their jobs. It's an unfortunate but foreseeable scenario that expedites the problem where people prefer self-checkout. I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit.

They're pretty good near me

And of course, there's this idea everything needs to be done like the house is on fire, but I'm usually fairly happy if I see someone getting a break to look at their phone and doesn't notice immediately that I'm standing waiting or whatever. Or ambles over at a leisurely pace, that's fine, take your time, it's hard running around all day

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#13

Post by darth_avocado »

petcat wrote: post #6
reactordev wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just one facet. It’s not just the gig economy is “full”, all economies are “full”. There are not enough jobs for the employable people.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

> I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout

That’s at least one trend I’ve seen reversed. All the self checkouts around where I am have been removed because the stores realized that the self checkouts and honesty system only works when the times are good.

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#14

Post by jack_tripper »

immibis wrote: post #10
jack_tripper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The gig economy is hiding the real employment problem in most of the West. This. Jobs that were previously contract employment jobs that came with health insurance, workers rights and social security and were mostly taken by youth as part time jobs to fund studies, are now turned into gig jobs where you get none of those things and are mostly taken by migrants who live 10 in an apartment and send the money home. Gig…

The capital-owning class is society. Don't you have a 401(k)?

[flagged]

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#15

Post by reactordev »

darth_avocado wrote: post #13
petcat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

> I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout That’s at least one trend I’ve seen reversed. All the self checkouts around where I am have been removed because the stores realized that the self checkouts and honesty system only works when the times are good.

Video surveillance and facial recognition is in use here to prevent that kind of thing.

You should see what target does to all their stores…

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#16

Post by almosthere »

petcat wrote: post #6
reactordev wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just one facet. It’s not just the gig economy is “full”, all economies are “full”. There are not enough jobs for the employable people.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

So you've never had a cart FULL of groceries? Or are you one of those people that do 30 items at self checkout?

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#18

Post by jjice »

darth_avocado wrote: post #13
petcat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a statistic that roughly 10% of the US workforce is in some form of "customer-facing service" role and I just have to wonder how many of those jobs are nearly gone, or already gone. Even if it's a 5% reduction, or 3% over the next decade, that seems catastrophic without a completely new category of jobs to replace them. I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout. I stayed…

> I haven't talked to a cashier at a grocery store in years. It's all self-checkout That’s at least one trend I’ve seen reversed. All the self checkouts around where I am have been removed because the stores realized that the self checkouts and honesty system only works when the times are good.

The reversal of self checkouts has been one I've seen spottily, but I do totally agree. I've seen some Walmarts close their self checkout while others keep them open. I guess each store may do their out loss calculations and take action based on that.

I personally like self-checkout a lot. At the grocery store I used to go to, I swear I could get my stuff scanned and bagged in half the time as the cashier, and that's not counting the time waiting in limited lines (since there are usually way more self checkouts so the time-to-first-scan is also lower). Very slow and they seemed to hate small talk (also a let down, because the only redeeming part of a manned line to me is casual conversation with the cashier and those in line).

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#19

Post by overtone1000 »

treyd wrote: post #11
jmathai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who are still employed by my local grocery store don't seem too motivated to do their jobs. It's an unfortunate but foreseeable scenario that expedites the problem where people prefer self-checkout. I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit.

> I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit. This is not legal, executives of publicly traded companies are required to put maximizing shareholder value above all other considerations.

I suspect the implication was that consumers and voters would do the brake pumping. I don't think anyone expects CEOs or boards to be socially conscious anymore. The idea that companies would care about externalities is quaint.

Re: U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains

#20

Post by darth_avocado »

treyd wrote: post #11
jmathai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who are still employed by my local grocery store don't seem too motivated to do their jobs. It's an unfortunate but foreseeable scenario that expedites the problem where people prefer self-checkout. I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit.

> I wish we'd pump the brakes on efficiency and profit. This is not legal, executives of publicly traded companies are required to put maximizing shareholder value above all other considerations.

That’s not true. Theoretical maximum shareholder value would be achieved by firing all employees and selling the company for scraps, yet we don’t see that happening. Fiduciary duty doesn’t mean you are required to squeeze profits above all else.
Post reply on HN