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US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

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Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#391
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a significant majority of people in Canada who not only vocally decided to not go to US but discourage their friends from doing so too. People have judged me for driving through the states.

We did not travel to the US during Trump's first presidency either. That said, I do think some people are doing things for the wrong reasons and there is some manipulation of the masses at play here. One example is I expect most people don't really understand the tariff situation between Canada and the US and that most goods are still exempt from taxes and the agreements hold. I think some people want to punish the U…

> I think some people want to punish the US for tariffs that don't exist.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the Gestapo. What a lovely time to be a foreigner travelling in the US...

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#393
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at least Russia can fund their war better, right?

Are you referring to where he just eased sanctions on Russian oil so they can sell again at high profit to fund their own war of choice? I figured he was going to drop sanctions on them sooner or later but that was quite the ploy The problem is zero consequences for anything he does now, completely isolated, so it's one country destroying choice after another https://reddit.com/r/Keep_Track/comments/j6z8eh

I believe at least part of the rationale for allowing sales, short term, is to try and reverse the oil price increase, due to the Iran war.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year we cancelled a planned US vacation, this year we didn't even think about it. Going back to Europe two years in a row. I don't give a fuck about tariff policy of our supposed "friends" but when our "friend" repeatedly threatens our independence and sovereignty, no thanks. Not going to step into the USA for a long time.

Can't blame you. Coming from the US I have been making a point to vacation in Canada, fwiw. Short of voting, protesting and getting into arguments with MAGA people I don't know what else I can effectively do.

> Short of voting, protesting and getting into arguments with MAGA people I don't know what else I can effectively do.

Also:

Give money to organizations that are doing the work on your behalf. Lawsuits are still important.

Call or write your reps *frequently*. They use software to automatically tabulate voter positions. (And they look at it--they want to keep their jobs!)

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#395
post #6

There's a vibe in at least the PNW that feels like the tech sector is sloughing jobs and avoiding creating new ones courtesy of AI. I genuinely wonder if that feeling is backed by reality and whether it's large enough to be translating into national statistics across all industries.

The idea doesn't really make sense to me. We know LLMs increase productivity, especially for coding, but increasing productivity shouldn't make you fire people unless your business has already exhausted any potential for growth. Instead we would expect the increased productivity to grow businesses further and increase hiring for all other tasks that LLMs are still not good at.

AI is killing the notion that SW companies are infinite money printing machines. The idea is that someday soon(in the next 5-10 years as markets are forward looking), someone will vibe-code a replacement for Photoshop/TurboTax/Office and if nothing else that will kill the profit margins. This changes the entire economics of SW and affects current hiring and spending.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#396
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, how do they make copies of everything? Do they just film the phone as they're scrolling it?

They connect it to a little box that hacks into the phone and downloads everything. Search for "Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED)" or "Grayshift GrayKey". The border agent doesn't have to know anything about phones/computers, it's just "plug in, press button". With modern phones, they really only work if you unlock your phone before handing it to them, and they'll make you do that. If you don't u…

This post alone should be a reason for tourism to the USA to drop to ~0%.

I've visited a lot of countries in my life but I've never been treated as rudely as on the US border.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US tourism declined in 2025 but the number has been relatively flat since then. These recent job losses are probably not attributable to tourism since that’s unchanged year over year. I’m not saying tourism is not a factor or denying anecdotes about people not visiting the US, but I don’t think it’s the explanation for the February 2026 job losses.

> I’m not saying tourism is not a factor or denying anecdotes about people not visiting the US, but I don’t think it’s the explanation for the February 2026 job losses. This is accurate. This thread is people emoting. I get it, might as well let it out. Tourism being major part of the US GDP feels like countries whose GDP depends on tourism, projecting. I get that too, if that is the paradigm you live in every day, t…

Most US tourism is domestic, the effect of a 12% drop in international tourism arrivals is a rounding error even for the US tourism industry as a whole, much less the US economy overall (tourism is 3% of total, compared to ~10% in other major tourist destinations like France).

Emoting and wishful thinking is exactly right, and I say that as a Canadian who is participating in this boycott. I'm not doing it to hurt the US economy, because I know it won't matter one bit even if we all stay away. It'll hurt some border destinations, but will hardly register in most places. Facts are facts.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't blame you. Coming from the US I have been making a point to vacation in Canada, fwiw. Short of voting, protesting and getting into arguments with MAGA people I don't know what else I can effectively do.

I surprised more US folks dont visit Canada, its amazing, much safer, and cheaper for them because of the exchange difference. Im guessing they see prices in CAD ($), and think its more expensive, but not realizing that $1 of theirs buys $1.35 CAD.

It's probably just that it doesn't feel like there's much to "get" there.

If you go south you get sun and beaches. The coastal regions of Canada will be comparable to the coastal regions of New England and the Pacific Northwest, so there's no need to go all the way there if that's the sort of beach you're looking for.

Likewise your outdoors, your cities and restaurants and museums are all going to be about the same as the options available in the US, just further away. It's not really "exotic".

We don't really have the same emigrant relationship with Canada; my grandfather's family spent a couple generations in Canada, but my mother only found out about it after he died. He considered his family to be Irish and to have come from Ireland; that they came to the US via a couple of generations spent in New Brunswick was never a part of the family lore.

So there's no real "visiting the home of my ancestors" sort of feeling you'd otherwise see.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#399
post #6

There's a vibe in at least the PNW that feels like the tech sector is sloughing jobs and avoiding creating new ones courtesy of AI. I genuinely wonder if that feeling is backed by reality and whether it's large enough to be translating into national statistics across all industries.

I can only speak from anecdotal experience in that I just witnessed this week, dev team leads and architects “replaced” by Claude code, they kept the offshore junior-mid coders and are giving them $20/mo pro accounts… (doesn’t that seem a little backwards?)

Always good to see an A/B test done.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#400

I do not see the tourism industry mentioned here but I have to imagine that is a huge loss right now. Most of the world is not visiting the US right now which means projects and planning that was made in anticipation for summer has probably been halted or heavily reduced.

Las Vegas tourism is experiencing a significant downturn in early 2026, with 2025 finishing with a 7.5% decline in visitors—the sharpest drop outside the pandemic since 1970. - Google AI
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