The US economy keeps reporting adding jobs, but it seems like most companies are cutting workforce. What am I missing?

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Every month when the US jobs report comes out, they’re talking about an increase in jobs or a great jobs report. But when I read the news, I keep hearing about these companies cutting 5%, 8%, etc. of their workforce.

Most of them seem to be “white collar” jobs, and I understand why they’re doing it, but the reports feel disconnected from reality. I personally know people that have been laid off. I’m not trying to e political, I’m just trying to understand what I’m missing? Where is the disconnect?

In: Economics

10 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You hear about big companies laying off 5000 employees, you don’t hear about 2500 companies each hiring 2 new employees.

Also, unemployment was historic lows, so even though there have been layoffs it still keeps unemployment incredibly low overall.

Many of the tech layoffs are because in the tightest labor market, the companies were basically stockpiling employees so that the had people to staff projects when needed. A company like Microsoft might have added 50k employees since 2021 and are now cutting like 10k, so they’re still far above pre-pandemic staffing levels.

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