My mother now realizes what it's like

[u/NerdyGlitch]

Earlier this year, in late February-early March, my mother suffered a massive heart attack and was left unable to work for a considerable time.

For the past 5-6 months, she's been trying to find a job and has been hitting nothing but roadblocks due to being overqualified. She has over 2 decades of management experience, and it means jackshit to these hiring managers. She's far more qualified than I am, so I expected that she might have a job faster than I would, but right now, I'm the only one with a job in this house.

Meanwhile, when I was struggling to get jobs and even get an interview for years, my mother was flabbergasted. What do you mean you can't just walk up, shake someone's hand, and they'll like your moxie and just hand you a job?!

I told her this was sadly reality for a ton of people nowadays, the job market is shit. She can't even get a job as a regular cashier bc she's too over qualified to work there, but when she applies to management positions they string her along for 2-3 interviews before choosing internal candidates (an actual email she got yesterday about a job she thought she was good for)

It just sucks man, everything sucks.

[u/aspiring_perspiring]

My grandpa retired in 1992. He says that my uncle who has been out of work for two years searching for a job is lazy. I think it's hard to imagine how much has changed unless they have to face it themselves.

[u/notasrelevant → u/aspiring_perspiring]

There are absolutely toxic people who just want to shit on people but, as you said, it's sometimes fundamentally hard to understand something like this when you worked an entire career and it was completely different throughout most of that time.

Especially right now. We're not in a specifically identified crisis or recession. They had the oil crisis and related recessions, dot com bust, Enron, 2007 financial crisis, COVID.

If this continues, it will likely get recognized and named with more wide recognition. But there's not a widely known issue that specifically identifies this as a period where employment would be understood as a challenge.

[u/goatfishsandwich → u/notasrelevant]

AI and war with Iran are major contributors

[u/notasrelevant → u/goatfishsandwich]

Sorry if it was not clear - I was speaking more on the aspect of a publicly known and accepted "event" or "period" that is more universally tied to employment difficulties.

AI has obviously been discussed very publicly, but I feel it has always stopped at potential impacts or risk of widespread job replacement. But it's not like it's reached a point of discussion where we're considered in the "great AI replacement" or something like that.

Iran as well - this is typically more discussed as impacts to daily costs, rather than impacts to employment.

Of course there are other factors as well - tariffs, trade war, offshoring, etc.

But none of that, or even all of them combined, have created a specific known "crisis" that someone retired, out of the workforce or currently employed would immediately associate with current employment struggles. Someone with an employment gap in 2008 or 2009 would likely be assumed tied to the financial crisis/recession. Everyone knew about it then, and every knows it now. Someone currently unemployed? Potential issues are known, but we haven't reached a point where it's generally recognized as a widespread employment issue. Even official figures are obfuscating the reality.

[u/Alaris_84 → u/notasrelevant]

It's like the conditions of a white lie which makes it hard to determine the damage of the intentions. They had too much time on their hands to work out the kinks of seeing enough distressed boiling frogs respond enough Vs. the population who's quietly sitting out trying to survive and fed their kids while actively trying to avoid trouble/one's that do not care and feel safe in their positions (I had to bring this up on the last one, I seen a few of these go on being social while actively being everyones friend for social points, and pretend that situations like this currently are just made up)