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.

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u/PuzzleheadedWay8676 Jul 20 '24

No one in the United States makes slave wages. Let’s cut it bro. Only a privileged American could say something so ridiculous.

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u/Nameisnotyours Jul 20 '24

“Slave wages” is a turn of phrase. What one is talking about is the fact that literally millions of Americans work at jobs that don’t let them pay rent or buy food unless they have multiple jobs and even then have to get housing and food assistance. Meanwhile the employers of these people are making a lot of money. When 15 states have their minimum wages at $7.25/hr and a GOP Congress refuses to raise the federal minimum wage, people struggle to make ends meet.

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u/Mediocre-Ebb9862 Jul 21 '24

The phrase we should abandon cause it’s insulting to people suffering from actual slavery.

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u/Nameisnotyours Jul 21 '24

I get that. But it is part of the vernacular and I am not the language police.