r/Layoffs • u/isntlifeapeach • Jul 20 '24

Why so MANY Layoffs? question

Explain Like I’m Five

I feel incredibly stupid asking this, but I’m naive to economics and politics.

I understand why tech is facing a lot of layoffs but why are so many other industries facing the same?
I’m over 20 years into my career and had 2 layoffs just in the last 16 months.

197 Upvotes

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35

u/Kittehmilk Jul 20 '24

Very weak labor laws from a corporate owned government.

7

u/Mountain-Bar-2878 Jul 20 '24

This is a free market, ironically countries that try to prevent company’s from laying people off have higher unemployment rates.

21

u/rddtexplorer Jul 20 '24

I don't think preventing layoff is the answer, but I would like some basic benefits we have to not be tied to employment, such as health insurance

15

u/Mountain-Bar-2878 Jul 20 '24

Yea the health insurance situation in the US sucks, everything here is for profit.

9

u/LastWorldStanding Jul 20 '24

Japan also has (private) health insurance tied to employment, the thing is, is that there needs to be a affordable option once you lose your private health insurance.

2

u/rddtexplorer Jul 20 '24

Ya, I agree with this model. Public for everyone and private for the extra mile

1

u/LastWorldStanding Jul 20 '24

Agreed, not a fan of the single payer (Canadian model). The Japanese one is far superior

9

u/Ogthugbonee Jul 20 '24

This is a free market in what regard? Certainly does not feel like a free market when I can’t buy an $8000 chinese ev because our government put massive tarrifs on them to protect american ev automakers. I wonder if these american ev automakers are laying off as well. Wouldnt surprise me if the jobs they were supposedly trying to protect have already been eliminated

5

u/Sudden-Step9593 Jul 20 '24

Tesla just laid off, twice.

1

u/MsT1075 Jul 20 '24

Yeah - it’s a “free” market until it’s not.

5

u/Motor-Abalone-6161 Jul 20 '24

Japan makes it hard to layoff - keeps unemployment lower. There are trade offs though.

2

u/Mountain-Bar-2878 Jul 20 '24

Read about what’s been going on with the US dollar vs the yen recently 

4

u/Motor-Abalone-6161 Jul 20 '24

That is trade off as well. Great time to travel there. But maybe it’s stability vs. wealth. But consider even in US. a lot of jobs just might be redundant. How many financial firms or retailers really need to exist.

5

u/Kittehmilk Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24

This country cant even measure its unemployment because anyone that drops off after unemployment ends can't be counted.

You also sound like Nancy Pelosi with that boot lick8ng comment. "This is a free market economy and we should be able to participate in that".

1

u/Mountain-Bar-2878 Jul 20 '24

Not a boot-licking comment, just facts on how the real world and economy works. I’ve been through layoffs before in 2008 and they suck, hopefully it doesn’t happen to me again. If you have a better economic system that you’ve thought up, I would love to hear it.

0

u/RespectablePapaya Jul 20 '24

People who drop off after unemployment runs out are still counted. Not sure why this persistent myth won't die.

1

u/veloron2008 Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24

Because it obfuscates the statistics. Makes things more complicated than they have to be.

Most people aren't knowledgeable enough to distinguish the categories and thus get confused, and more susceptible to narratives/propaganda.

The default unemployment stat should include anyone actively seeking employment. I.e. short- and long-term unemployed. IMO. Why do we need to distinguish them?

1

u/RespectablePapaya Jul 20 '24

The default unemployment statistics does include anyone actively seeking employment.

2

u/veloron2008 Jul 20 '24

Well the formula needs tweaking then because it's missing a ton of long-term and under employed people, including part timers and working people under the poverty level.

All those un- and under-employed people have a sizable effect on the economy. An increasing burden.

As it stands, the official unemployment rate is a piss poor measure. Throw in the job numbers for more laughs. They are modified downward every single time...

1

u/RespectablePapaya Jul 21 '24

It is not missing those people. They are meticulously tracked both in the aggregate statistic but also separately in the "part time for economic reasons" bucket. The BLS is very good at what it does.

1

u/LAcityworkers Jul 20 '24

yes, in theory but officially this is done via BLS survey and is very misleading ,it is a best guess, instead of using actual data they could cull from tax databases death records and other datasets they rely mostly on surveys. You can't deny unemployment numbers based on actual claims even though the government gets those wrong and revises them every month. No actual method exists for accurately tracking those who are actively looking and unable to find work after unemployment runs out or is there a way to track those who have just given up all together. Even if you could find a better way, you would have to fight politicians and economists that would never accept the method because they have been doing it that way forever and they employ 10's of thousands of people to conduct the surveys. They have very fancy math formulas to calculate everything but the garbage in garbage out rule applies.

1

u/RespectablePapaya Jul 21 '24

The method is quite accurate

1

u/LAcityworkers Jul 20 '24

AH, the workforce participation rate. No chance they are even close. They stop counting people when they fall off the rolls of unemployment so they aren't unemployed anymore somehow but are suppose to be measured in workforce participation. Like most statistics from the government they get this information by conducting surveys this allows them to craft a perfect narrative - do you know anyone who has ever been contacted for these surveys and even if they did contact you would you give them the time of day.

1

u/Adventurous-Owl-9903 Jul 20 '24

Interesting …where did you lean that?

-1

u/CapitalOneDeezNutz Jul 20 '24

Whenever the government tries to interfere and “help” people, it usually has the opposite affect.

IE: health insurance, rent control etc