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Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

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Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#131

Post by Smeevy »

sqircles wrote: post #79
khernandezrt wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve been employed since 2019, got laid off 3 weeks ago. I’ve applied to over 70 jobs and not a single has replied other than to reject me. This is brutal.

The thing that seemed to work best for me was reaching out to dev shops in my area and starting a conversation even if they didn't have a position posted. Go to meetups and talk to people, join their discord, etc... and job fairs, as lame as they seem, produced contacts for me that are still reaching out "just in case" even though I found a position eventually. What's old is new again. Get those soft skills warmed up…

I completely agree with you. All the best jobs I've had have come from personal relationships.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#132

Post by jordanb »

simpaticoder wrote: post #13
JackMorgan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're heading further into a reality where there just aren't enough jobs. All the money has been hoovered into the stock market. There's just not enough floating around to pay people, it's all going into LLM electricity or graphics cards. We should be living in a time of ease, where the whole planet is sustained with all of us only working a few hours a week. Instead most people are fighting for scraps barely able to…

Wouldn't it be nice if individuals decided at the start of their career how much money was "enough" for them, and made a pledge to retire once they hit that number. Then society can give them an "I won!" hat or gold card or something, and the next guy can take the role. In this way all enterprises become an engine pulling new hires off the street, and emitting independently wealthy people to go and enjoy their lives.…

I think there's a strong case for having maximum wealth above which you'll just get a 100% tax.

All the billionaires are equal parts clearly miserable people, and also terrifying and psychopathic. I assume they didn't start out that way, but there's also probably a personality that just has a need to run up the score.

I think if capitalism had a kill screen, that you get to and then you have to go do something else for a while, both the billionaires and the rest of us would all be happier and healthier.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#133

Post by charlie0 »

Uvix wrote: post #47
charlie0 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one can guarantee that but if you place your dollars into assets, those assets will inflate.

Except when they don't, like Japan's stock market from 1989-2024.

Japan has had relatively low inflation until recently.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#134

Post by toomuchtodo »

potato3732842 wrote: post #120
toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real estate market will soften as the economy comes off the rails [1]. 6-12 months from now should have more motivated sellers depending on market (foreclosures in Clark County Las Vegas market are up 32% year over year June 2025, for example [2]). Short sales and foreclosure auctions are also options. If you still want to buy down the road, be in the strongest financial position possible to get financing and make an…

How do you reconcile this opinion when only a day ago you were arguing that reduced demand for clild care would not cause a reduction in cost? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44894599

Reduction in childcare cost in my linked comment, not real estate. Unsure how you made such a connection. From that comment:

> It doesn't make sense if you need both incomes to survive. It just pushes the total fertility rate down faster when prospective parents realize they cannot afford childcare nor one parent to remain at home.

In the context of this thread, there are not enough houses for demand, that is why they are expensive, but if an administration beats on the economy hard enough, causing job destruction and increased unemployment, those who cannot continue to afford to service their mortgages will be forced to sell. This would contribute to real estate price softening. Child care costs will never come down (as I assert in my other comment) because the government refuses to subsidize it and there are labor shortages, with childcare providers unable to find staff for the childcare wages on offer. Labor shortages will persist well into the future due to prime working age population compression due to structural demographics. Citations for this are in my comment you linked to, but I can provide as many as you would like.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#135

Post by toomuchtodo »

klipklop wrote: post #101
klooney wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supply and demand for labor will work itself out- prices will go up, companies will invest in efficiency, etc. People just need time to figure out the details, and the legal right to do the job.

Can people wait multiple decades for this to sort out? People without housing they can afford need it immediately. There are going to be losers in this. No avoiding it.

Indeed, that's my thesis, I appreciate you making it crystal clear. The pipeline has failed, and if there is a will to fix it, it will take time. Until it's sorted, year after year, there will be folks who go without affordable housing. There are, as you said, going to be losers from this policy failure.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#136

Post by [deleted] »

robjan wrote: post #113
dismalaf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money only goes to the company to get reinvested when the company sells shares, so at IPO time, when an insider sells, when more shares are issued, etc... Otherwise, it's one asset holder selling to another asset holder, usually at ever increasing prices. So yes, a lot of money is simply sitting in the stock market. Now, some does come back in the form of share buybacks and dividends. That being said, the average div…

When I buy a stock the seller gets the money. The money doesn't "go in to the stock market".

[deleted]

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#137

Post by Herring »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #127

In a way this is the ultimate goal of conservatism in its literal sense to conserve. The rich want have their place in society safely entrenched at the top, with no risk of people rising from below to displace them. Those at the bottom should stay locked in there and work and toil because that is the natural order of things.

According to the election and the polls, this is exactly what Americans want.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/americans-vi...

> 41% of Americans say the government should provide more assistance to people in need

> 30% say it's providing about the right amount

> 27% say it should provide less

41-57? If there are issues in America, it's because Americans want it that way.

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#138

Post by jurking_hoff »

khernandezrt wrote: post #58
donatj wrote: post #22

I've been casually job hunting for a couple months since rounds of layoffs started at my company. I've applied to umpteen places and haven't had a single callback. In my twenty+ years working as a dev, this is the worst I've seen it since about 2005.

I’m in the same boat. I’ve been employed since 2019, got laid off 3 weeks ago. I’ve applied to over 70 jobs and not a single has replied other than to reject me. This is brutal.

[dead]

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#139

Post by jurking_hoff »

potato3732842 wrote: post #121
itake wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the homes selling for less than 50k have a job market to supports owning a home at that price?

And do they a) qualify for normal mortgage products b) need another $50-100k dumped into them immediately to be habitable.

[dead]

Re: Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling

#140

Post by danans »

saelthavron wrote: post #109
danans wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd caution from reading too much into numbers like this. 400 applications is borderline spamming, putting quantity over quality, which employers would notice. It can be far fewer if you have a focus/specialty and specific industries that you target. No doubt though, it's a slog right now. My recent process was around 10 applications - which became 3 interviews - and the last 2 were offers, one that came via a recrui…

Being deliberate hasn't helped me. Hell, I've learned quite a bit about this one company. In my last interview, I asked a question that surprised the interviewers. It was about something they had yet to start work on which came up in another interview for a different position which I had already been rejected for. They still rejected me. At this point, I'm guessing I'm black-balled.

I've been there, but just because you did things the "right" way and got rejected from one company doesn't mean you should throw away what worked. After all, they did interview you for a second role after the first one.

That said, especially in a tough labor market, finding a job is like dating, and the vibes matter a lot. While you control your side of the vibe, you don't control the other side. Technical people especially often don't want to think about the interpersonal factors, but they are a real part of the process.

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