Unemployment

I climb telephone poles. It’s awesome.

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In a small Ohio city between Dayton and Columbus, the American Dream is alive and well for 24-year-old Kyson Cook. The father of one owns a three-bedroom home, has no debt beyond his mortgage and ends most workdays around 4:30 p.m., leaving plenty of time to shoot pool, go fishing or spend time with family. He has a small plot of land with space for his daughter to play, along with enough money to buy her whatever toys she wants and regularly contribute to a mutual fund with her name on it, without needing to cut back on new clothes, vacations or eating out. The AI economy is rewriting the American Dream — and blue-collar workers are poised to win – https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/ai-hiring-slowdown-skilled-trade-workers.html

Your Post-Memorial Day long read. Bonus – Scary Charts!

Let’s create existential distress and deep anxiety in your employees!

Taking the brunt of this are young workers. According to a recent survey by yet another consulting firm, most of the AI-driven headcount reduction that CEOs are bracing for is expected to focus on early-career positions. The reasoning for that, as it goes, is that AI is best at automating simpler tasks that an early-career worker would be expected to perform at a company as they get on-the-job training needed to mature into higher-level positions. But many executives, dazzled by the promise of an AI chatbot that can finish tasks in mere seconds and work 24/7 without needing so much as a bathroom break, have said to hell with early-career workers and training the future of the workforce. 99% of CEOs Expect AI-Driven Layoffs in the Next Two Years – https://gizmodo.com/99-of-ceos-expect-ai-driven-layoffs-in-the-next-two-years-2000762994

Or you can believe the NY Federal Reserve.

We document that one factor contributing to youth unemployment is the four-fold rise in remote work since the pandemic. Employers may not want to hire fresh graduates onto distributed teams because it is more difficult to teach them the requisite skills from afar. Remote Work Leaves Younger Workers Sidelined – https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/06/remote-work-leaves-younger-workers-sidelined/

Good luck trying to determine what’s true. It’s only the worst job market for college grads ever.

Would Your Company Hire an Unemployed Job Candidate?

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Not Working? Sorry, Not Interested – Businessweek

Rejecting unemployed job candidates out of hand is really stupid business, on top of being shockingly rude and unprofessional. When we say, “We don’t hire unemployed people, period,” we’re sending a loud signal to the talent population, our employees, our customers, and our vendors that we don’t have a clue how to manage people. It’s pretty easy to separate the wheat from the chaff in a selection pipeline. No one has yet won a Nobel Prize for innovation in recruiting, because it’s just not that complicated a topic.

Fascinating article and IMHO a MUST read.  If companies don’t hire the unemployed just because they are unemployed then we will have millions of people spinning their wheels looking for work until they end up dead or on government assistance.

Hamsters one and all.

 

Unemployment and Mortality

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Study Sees Link Between Unemployment, Mortality Rates | workforce.com

Unemployment and reduced spending on health care have a direct effect on the country’s mortality rate, according to a new study. Unemployed workers lose jobs, lose health insurance, get stressed and adopt unhealthy behaviors.<!—->

This short article teases and provides little details of the study findings.  If I can find a link to, or the actual study I will post that.  Obviously, unemployment increases mortality but without a look at the study we don’t know how much of an increase we’re talking about.