I’m a 2024 postgraduate. People keep saying that my chances of getting hired is severely affected by recession. Is recession happening? If yes, how is it affecting me as an individual looking for jobs?
In: Economics
Imagine you’re a business that sells widgets. Usually you sell 100 widgets a year, but this year people are out spending less money so instead you sell 80. With less widgets sold, you have less money coming in. With less money coming in, you can’t afford to hire more people to sell widgets. You might even need to let some people go because you can’t afford to pay them, so they cut back on purchases while trying to find a job, which results in even *less* demand.
Whether we’re in a recession or not has been a topic of discussion for a couple years. *Technically* based on the strict definition, we did enter a recession. What’s unusual, though, is that demand is still pretty high. Companies are operating like we’re in a recession, but consumers are buying like we’re not.
Businesses sell less products/services. Revenue goes down. Work load no longer requires current staffing numbers, people are laid off as a result. Unemployment goes up, more people are looking for less jobs. Becomes more difficult to find a position.
A recession is defined as two quarters in a row of negative growth compared to the previous. We technically are not in one, and unemployment numbers are low. But inflation is real.
There’s nothing you can do anyways, just apply and be prepared for interviews, dont wing it.
Slowed down job recruitments is a symptom of an economic cycle that tells is if we’re in a recession. A recession is below-normal economic activity. People aren’t buying things for various reasons (like natural disasters, pandemics, bursting of economic bubbles), companies don’t produce as much because the demand isn’t there, so they don’t need to hire more people.
The National Bureau of Economic Research [defines recession](https://nber.org/news/business-cycle-dating-committee-announcement-january-7-2008) as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the market, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”
In any recession, there are job markets that grow, but the overall situation is stagnation or down. It really depends on what field you’re looking in.
Essentially, due to the recession the companies have less money (or the reverse, ie the companies have less money so it’s a recession), and so, rather than growing by hiring more people, the corporations have to either scale down by firing people, or maintain what they have. Unfourtunately, due to the current system, unless a company is growing enough per quarter they are preassured to fire people to make the profit look bigger on paper
Simply put, instead of companies wanting to hire people, they want to let a few people off, and those people once let off will be competing with you for jobs, which in turn means not only are your options scarce, wages are lower and standards higher for any potential position.
We’re in a very weird point in economics, things don’t happen the way they used to so it’s hard to say if there even will be a recession.
That being said, this is an election year, and politicians are doing everything they can to make bunnies feel safe and comfortable. Get on the floor now while the honey flows, take advantage of the fact many speculators feel things may actually get much better in the coming years, and get ahead of the newcomers in front of you who will be the first to be redundant.
A bunny doesn’t have to be faster than a fox, it has to be faster than the slower bunny.
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