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US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

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Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why this logic isn’t more mainstream. Half the country is clamoring for tariffs, bans on H1Bs, offshoring taxes, etc. They’re not connecting the dots on how this affects innovation, the economy, debt, taxation, etc. Is it a failure of education or a culture of rejecting it?

For the US, it's not too out of the norm historically speaking. Up until relatively recently tariffs were very popular in the US despite the clear understanding by academics that they were incredibly damaging to the economy. Political movements based around protectionist economic arguments have a long history in the US. For an example, take a look at the 1888 US presidential election, which largely revolved around ta…

Serious question, if tariffs are so terrible, why did so many countries have tariffs on US (and other country's) goods?

Also, during the period you describe the US was a major export economy. Now the US economy is far more insular (even before Trump) than it was during that period (foreign trade was more than 50% in the late 19th century vs 7% today). Why would you assume that doesn't impact the effects of tariffs?

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I do want to pay more to bolster my country's domestic workforce vs subsidizing corporate shareholders and offshore workers, while also having that come out of corporate profits. shrug

Personally I’m willing to pay more to support global trade, and reduce the harmful effects of excessive nationalism and imperialism.

It's even better than that, pay less and support global trade.

Just make sure you have a degree and a service sector white collar job though.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#263
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understand something, though: many of those people making those decisions thought that the current administration would be a way to fix regulation. We're learning why government shouldn't be run like a business. Corporate governance, at least in the view of these people, arguably benefits from tyranny in some ways. You have a management structure where people have the ability to cut off your income and health insuran…

Seems to me like it's American businesses that are increasingly operating like governments. Acquiring media outlets to manufacture consent, bending the courts to deregulate their operations, trading political favors and engaging in centralized economic planning for giant bets on AI, funded with debt.

> engaging in centralized economic planning for giant bets on AI

If they're centralizing economic planning on that, then there's probably at least some economic planning that they would be doing to keep a relatively stable regulatory regime in place.

Which, y'know, isn't the case.

Ultimately the world has reached a point where social systems in both business and government are run the same way. Probably because they're run by the same kind of person. Sometimes even the same people.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the rate of change. Things like NAFTA took many years to implement, and were debated and developed in the open. Everyone understood what would happen to the economy and that there would be a decade of transition. Nobody announces the largest tariffs since the 1930s overnight, and selectively increases or dismantles them from week to week. Just look at this line graph: https://www.usfunds.com/resource/americas-ta…

It could come back. Trump being removed, Vance returning to normal, then normal for the next decade and it would just be a crazy blip. But it’s not just Trump. This is what America wants.

[deleted]

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re misinformed or willingly stupid if you think there are H1 hiring sprees with the last set of changes. H1 hiring has tanked.

This is a real eye-opener. Do you know how to fix how stupid I am? Tell me what's wrong with my analysis. Here's a report: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-lawmakers-scruti... . Is it factually wrong that "In the first half of 2025, Amazon and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta had more than 5,000 H-1B visa approvals each" and that the…

This article doesn’t provide any information at all, but existing H-1B visa holders have to have their visas renewed every few years.

Most of these visas are likely these companies simply renewing their existing employees’s visas.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#266

My hot take: We’re already in a recession. We just use AI to justify doing all the same recession behaviors while making it sound like innovation - not hiring this year > AI is making us productive! - no wage growth > AI means we don’t need to raise salaries - layoffs > with AI we can do more with less people - spending less on offsites, work perks etc > we really need that budget for AI - not spending money on that…

Also RTO mandates as a way to cover up for layoffs.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#267
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me like it's American businesses that are increasingly operating like governments. Acquiring media outlets to manufacture consent, bending the courts to deregulate their operations, trading political favors and engaging in centralized economic planning for giant bets on AI, funded with debt.

> engaging in centralized economic planning for giant bets on AI If they're centralizing economic planning on that, then there's probably at least some economic planning that they would be doing to keep a relatively stable regulatory regime in place. Which, y'know, isn't the case. Ultimately the world has reached a point where social systems in both business and government are run the same way. Probably because they'…

There were purges aplenty during the Communist times, to make way for loyalist bureaucrats. What's taking place is the incipience of not just a stable regime but a calcified one.

- A non-independent monetary authority

- A Department of Labor that uses data from a single private vendor instead of its own payroll tax records and surveys to measure unemployment

- A pro-monopoly consumer protection bureau scaling back unprofitable regulations

- A foreign service ready to threaten allies within its own sphere of influence to protect its tech businesses.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#268

My hot take: We’re already in a recession. We just use AI to justify doing all the same recession behaviors while making it sound like innovation - not hiring this year > AI is making us productive! - no wage growth > AI means we don’t need to raise salaries - layoffs > with AI we can do more with less people - spending less on offsites, work perks etc > we really need that budget for AI - not spending money on that…

My hotter take: we're in an economic death spiral. There isn't enough juice that can be squeezed short of mass wealth redistribution to reinvigorate the economy, and what is out there is locked up in stocks that don't translate to revenue. Slashing rates will just skyrocket prices and over inflate our monetary supply, and further tax cuts will only whittle away what's left of government services and social safety net…

this needs to be shouted from the rooftops. something drastic needs to happen or else we will be the harbinger of a large-scale societal collapse.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#269
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And never this sweeping: like when Japanese car manufacturers were threatening Detroit, the president negotiated with Congress and the response was targeted, not a random shotgun on other countries and industries.

Reagon and Congress directly negotiated with the Japanese auto manufacturers. They were threatening major tarrifs. This lead to the 1981 automobile voluntary export restraint. https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c8719/c8719.pdf

Yes: that’s kind of a textbook example of using tariffs strategically — there’s a valid argument that automobiles are a strategic industry worth protecting (just for military capacity alone) but they didn’t threaten to heavily tax coffee and chocolate from other continents at the same time or under the pretense that it would make those crops viable in the United States at scale.

Re: US Job Openings Decline to Lowest Level in More Than a Year

#270

As someone who's about to quit to go work on their startup, glad to know things are gonna be terrible if everything goes to shit and I need to return to the job market.

Hopefully by the time your startup fails the job market has recovered /s

But what if they plan to fail fast?
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