Via Zero Hedge by Tyler Durden
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
If you recently graduated from college, good luck trying to find a decent job. What we are experiencing right now reminds me so much of the early 1990s. If you were a new college graduate in those days, it was extremely difficult to even get an interview for a good job. Sadly, we are now entering a very similar environment. There is enormous competition for any good job that is available, and mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation. In fact, through the first 7 months of this year the number of job cut announcements in the U.S. was 75 percent higher than it was during the first 7 months of 2024.
I am not here to give people the Pollyanna version of what is going on. I am here to give people the truth.
21-year-old Manasi Mishra believed that if she worked really hard and got a computer science degree she would be able to get a six figure job at a big tech company.
Instead, the only thing her computer science degree has gotten her is an interview with Chipotle…
Aspiring computer scientists are sinking in a job market overtaken by AI, as a recent graduate who expected to make six figures could only land an interview at Chipotle.
Manasi Mishra, 21, was under the impression that if she worked hard in school and mastered coding, she’d have a prestigious tech job with a cushy salary lined up straight from college.
‘The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,’ the San Roman, California native told The New York Times.
In case you are wondering, she did not actually get the job with Chipotle…
To her dismay, she did not secure the job.
‘Of course, the year I graduate is the year the tech industry goes downhill,’ she elaborated in the ‘get ready with me’ video.
If even the tech industry is going “downhill”, what does that say about the state of the overall economy?
At one time, it was fairly easy to get hired by Microsoft if you had certain skills.
But this year Microsoft has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs. At this stage, the total number of workers that have been laid off has surpassed the 15,000 mark…
Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far in 2025. The stress of the belt-tightening has gotten to CEO Satya Nadella.
“Before anything else, I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” Nadella wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.
It would be difficult to overstate just how dramatically the environment has shifted.
Young people that are searching for jobs are running into closed door after closed door, and as a result many of them are experiencing financial difficulties.
According to Fox Business, “nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter”…
Young Americans continued to make up the largest share of those transitioning into credit card delinquency in the second quarter, according to a report released by the New York Federal Reserve.
Despite ticking down slightly from the previous quarter, the report showed that nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter.
New York Fed researchers said credit card delinquency rates for Americans under 40 have been “unusually elevated,” adding they are keeping a “close eye” on the trend.
Credit card companies are going to become much more stingy in extending credit to young adults.
As you can imagine, that will not be good for our economy at all.
But this is the environment that we live in now.
One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of Gen Z adults “have no emergency savings at all”…
Your car breaks down on a Tuesday morning, and the repair bill comes to $500. If you’re part of Generation Z, there’s a good chance you have nothing set aside to cover it. A new survey from Credit One Bank reveals that 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings at all, nearly double the rate of baby boomers. There’s a very clear widening gap in financial preparedness happening between generations.
Let that sink in.
Nearly two-thirds of an entire generation of Americans is living on the edge.
There will be some that will argue that they should just toughen up and take whatever they can get.
In the old days, if times were tough you could at least get a job as a delivery driver.
But now UPS is trying to rapidly shed existing workers by offering them buyouts…
The undertaking, called the Driver Voluntary Separation Program, is the first in UPS’ history for delivery drivers. The financial incentive available through the program is in addition to earned retirement benefits like pension and healthcare, per UPS.
Word of the program spread on July 3, when the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said UPS’ buyout plan was in motion. The Teamsters represent more than 300,000 UPS employees under a five-year contract reached in 2023.
Drivers that have literally been with UPS for decades are being encouraged to leave so that the company can cut labor costs…
About 85% of UPS drivers are at the top end of the pay scale. Those who have 25 to 40 years of service would be the most likely candidates to accept the buyout package, Nando Cesarone, president of the U.S. region and UPS Airlines, told analysts on the call.
UPS is offering $1,800 per year of service, with a minimum payout of $10,000. A driver with 27 years of experience would receive a $48,600 buyout, according to the offer sheet.
I wouldn’t want to be a new college graduate today.
If you get stuck in a bad job that is not in your field, it can permanently wreck your career.
I have seen it happen way too many times.
But getting hired for a good job has become an extremely challenging task.
In fact, one recent survey found that more than 60 percent of all Americans believe that it has “become more difficult to find a good paying job”…
According to the poll, more than six out of 10 Americans said it had become more difficult to find a good paying job, buy a home and afford childcare.
More than four out of five Americans, 83%, said they were concerned about the cost of groceries, with 46% saying they were very concerned. Some 47% said they were worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, 64% said they were worried about affording an unexpected medical expense.
It is time to face the truth.
We really are in the midst of a substantial economic downturn that has been going on for quite some time.
Needless to say, I believe that the difficult times that we are experiencing now are not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming.
So we are all going to have to adjust our plans and our expectations.
The system that we have all depended upon for so long is failing, and we all need to start becoming a lot more self-sufficient.
Read in its entirety at zerohedge.com.
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Just the tip of the iceberg: Bad enough for those who get degrees in something that has ‘real world’ applications, but how about the diploma mills that churn out useless degrees in ‘women’s studies’, ‘African lesbian dance history’ or ‘underwater basket weaving’ and similar useless majors? How about college classes – no matter what the subject title – that churn out little more than socialist indoctrination? What about the athletic programs so obsessed with championships that coaches are paid more than all department heads combined, that turn out illiterate, innumerate ‘graduates’ who can neither read their own diplomas or make change for a dollar?
This isn’t really new – lots of kids bought in to the falsehood that just because they had a shiny new degree in whatever discipline they would just waltz into a high paying job. Their problem was that they had little or no real world working experience. That does not translate into an upper management position, ya gotta earn your way into those.
Not bragging by any means but I worked my posterior off in a variety of ‘menial’ jobs over the decades to position myself for a fairly comfortable retirement. BTW that still isn’t near six figures but I get by pretty well.
Maybe these type of folks should just go out and become ‘street pharmacists’ (aka drug dealers) since that seems to be where the big bucks and flamboyant lifestyles are……………………………………
Ya, but Dad I majored in Greek Studies because the college is sending the entire class to Greece for 2 weeks. Yippee!
She works in a game store now.