UnfortunateSexFart posted:

Yes, North America is a low bar. I'm from the most progressive city supposedly, Vancouver, which is mega lib at best and getting significantly more fascist in time since regular people can't live there anymore. Cost of living is the same as Sydney yet many people make $5 less per hour than Australia's $19.49 minimum wage. I had to own a car in Vancouver, don't in Melbourne. In Vancouver I had no hope of retiring, in Melbourne my employer pays for my retirement on top of $10 more per hour and a month of paid vacation.

shovelbum posted:

vancouver sounds like the absolute worst city in north america by far tho?

Stairmaster posted:

i dont think that really changes anything

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

Homeless Friend posted:

twoday posted:

Steve Yun posted:

shovelbum posted:

vancouver sounds like the absolute worst city in north america by far tho?

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

Spergin Morlock posted:

I would rather live in Vancouver than somewhere like Jacksonville lol

Spoondick posted:

i rented a suit from mens warehouse last year and im getting increasingly desperate emails trying to get me to buy stuff every week or so

Homeless Friend posted:

shovelbum posted:

bill gates probably more or less tried to do things that he thought were good but because he is so insanely rich his unvetted fuckups became policy gospel and hosed up a bunch of schools and poo poo, which is why no one but the workers together should be that rich

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

Gripweed posted:

Isn't Bill Gates also really worried about "overpopulation"?

RandomBlue posted:

Major Karen energy here:

mod sassinator posted:

absolute yes, white collar jobs will be trashed. any company that relies on advertising is _fucked_ right now--ad spend is hugely down as every company freaks out about the short term future. this is having big knock on effects for companies that depend on ad revenue... like google, facebook, etc. google has already announced they're stopping and slowing hiring: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-15/google-to-slow-hiring-for-rest-of-2020-ceo-pichai-tells-staff that's just a start, expect them to get aggressive with 'managing out' people and maybe even layoffs after that (yes, tech companies with billions in the bank have layoffs: https://techcrunch.com/2009/01/22/sad-day-for-microsoft-5000-laid-off-earnings-and-revenues-down/--story from 2009 in the last collapse)

don't feel safe or comfortable in any job, unless it's like burying covid-19 victims

anime was right posted:

they layoffs have already started. they're gonna keep coming. the industries being hit are mostly what white collar workers spend money on, but service industry sectors and manufacturing have white collar corporate jobs which will be affected, and there are many industries they pay that will have a downtick in income. like, disney hires hundreds of agencies, what happens when there's no movies for the next six months? those agencies dont have income. layoffs and closures.

white collar just hasn't felt the after effects.

quote:

First, it was bars, restaurants, hotels. And clothing stores, movie theaters, entertainment venues. And countless small businesses, from bookstores to barber shops.

Now, the record-setting flood of layoffs unleashed by the viral outbreak is extending beyond the services industries that bore the initial brunt and are still suffering most. White collar employees, ranging from software programmers and legal assistants to sales associates and some health care workers, are absorbing layoffs or salary cuts. So are workers in other occupations, like construction and real estate.

The mounting toll of job losses resulted last week in 5.2 million new applications for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday. That raised the total number of laid-off workers in the month since the virus all but shut down the economy to 22 million — by far the worst run of U.S. job losses on record.

“There really is no industry that is immune from the effects of the outbreak,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job listings website Glassdoor, said.

Employee discussions of layoffs on Glassdoor have jumped 47% among information technology firms and 64% in finance, Zhao said. Such discussions have nearly doubled among workers in health care. That’s no longer surprising: Many doctors’ offices and other health providers have cut back on nonessential procedures, and some are shedding jobs.

The software company Toast, which works with the restaurant industry, last week cut half its workforce — 1,300 people — citing a dizzying drop in restaurant sales. Yelp, the customer review site, cut 1,000 jobs. Groupon, the online discount company, shed 2,800.

Layoffs jumped by nearly 40,000 in Texas earlier this month, the government’s report said, fueled partly by job losses in a category that includes data processing and online publishing companies. In Maine, job cuts swept through employers in the professional and scientific fields, which includes architectural and engineering companies. Healthcare workers and administrative support staff lost jobs in Tennessee.

Some law firms have felt compelled to shrink their staffs, too. One victim was Fern Weinbaum, who was furloughed last month from her job as a legal secretary at a small law firm in Manhattan. Weinbaum, 68, still hasn’t received her unemployment benefits, which she is counting on to help pay her monthly rent of $1,100.

“I am very anxious, I need the money,” she said. “It’s very frustrating.”

The grim figures on layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts point to a U.S. economy that is tumbling into what appears to be a calamitous recession, the worst in decades. The nation’s output could shrink by roughly 10.5% before it starts to rebound, according to Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. That would be more than double the contraction that occurred during the 2008-2009 recession, which was the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

All businesses deemed nonessential have been closed in nearly every state. Some economists say the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20% in April, which would be the highest rate since the Depression. By comparison, unemployment never topped 10% during the Great Recession.

quote:

Nick Castillo had just begun a job as a sales manager at an equipment distributor in South Florida. His salary was $70,000 a year plus commissions.

“Working there was fantastic,” said Castillo, 31, who also holds an MBA. “The bosses, the ownership group, everyone.”

As bad as things were getting in the outside world, Castillo says, the layoff notice he received two weeks ago was still unexpected. “I was very surprised, sad, maybe a little angry,” he said. “I have a 3-year-old son and a mortgage...I had thought sales were okay.”

Castillo is among the tens of thousands Florida workers who are now without a job. But while much of the focus from the current economic crisis has been on the decimated retail and hospitality industries, white-collar workers like Jimenez are also facing layoffs.

“Just as we saw with the 2008 Recession, job losses will cut across most industry sectors and occupations,” said Ned Murray, associate director of FIU’s Perez Metropolitan Center, in an email. “While many occupations in these sectors are low wage, these are big industry sectors employing many professionals as well.”

While-collar workers — in sales, technology, administration and other jobs — now comprise about 54 percent of the U.S. economy, or about 80 million positions, according to a Washington Post analysis.

“The impact of white collar layoffs should be less severe than consumer facing service sector jobs, but given how much economic output and consumer spending are falling right now, it is very unlikely that white collar employment makes it through this crisis unscathed,” said Abbey Omodunbi, an economist with The PNC Financial Services Grocup, in an email. “So I’d expect fewer but still some job losses. The longer the crisis goes on the more job losses and the wider they will be spread among different categories of employment.”

And while such workers may be less economically vulnerable in the short run, they typically contribute a greater share to the overall economy than blue-collar workers. When those higher-paid jobs are eliminated, consumer spending takes a hit.

Among those caught in that wider net is Lisa Wright, 56, who worked as a software consultant on a temporary contract for one of Miami’s largest hospitality companies. Wright and hundreds of other contractors were laid off en masse via a web conference call.

The news came as a shock given the scale of the project she had been working on. She considers herself luckier than many others: She supports only herself, and says she has enough of a financial cushion to get her through the short-term.

She is optimistic that her experience should allow her to pick up new work—although she said one local company that she had planned to interview with canceled the appointment at the last minute, saying it was pausing its planned project.

“There’s so much uncertainty, in all businesses,” she said. She declined to state her earnings but said she was operating at a senior level.

To retain her cash, she accepted offers to defer payments on her new house in Broward as well as a car payment. And she fears that if the crisis drags on, she will have to dip into her retirement funds.

Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director at think-tank Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, warns that the labor market may not pick up even after the immediate crisis passes. That’s because technology adoption accelerates in business down-cycles, he said. “It’s almost an [economic] law,” he said.

And with the advent of artificial technology, an increasing number of white collar professions — like human resources, marketing, and finance — likely are going to be replaced by software, he said.

“This is going to be a major assault on the bottom line of companies, who are then going to find that technology is much cheaper than people,” Muro said.

Kristen Elle Solorzano, a public relations professional, was laid off from an all-inclusive hotel chain where she was earning $43,000 per year. She started at the company in January, pitching stories to journalists and managing social media.

“Due to the coronavirus, the company has lost millions of dollars and decided to let go of 50% of the staff, myself included,” said Solorzano, 24.

She quickly took to social media to ask around about jobs, describing her skills on Facebook groups, which include a degree from the University of Florida and a certificate from Harvard. More than 50 people replied to one of her posts with messages like “If I hear of anything I’ll let you know. Chin up!” There were also replies about openings at a hearing aid company and at the City of Miami; a link to Chewy’s jobs page, to Disney’s Work from Home program and a few suggestions to apply to Instacart, which hires people to shop for and deliver groceries. One person posted the contact details of a lawyer that’s helping people recoup lost wages.

And there were a few “I’ll contact you. I’m looking for someone” type of replies.

But more than 10 days after her post, Solorzano still hasn’t found work. And she has other worries to think about, too:

“I have three young step sisters, which I help support, as well as my dad and step-mom. I’m looking for contract work, freelance jobs in marketing and social media — anything in my field. The problem is that nobody is hiring right now.”

Castillo, the sales manager, considers himself lucky: His wife works as a nurse, so there is still money coming in to help support their three-year-old son.

But he also they also have a $2,000 mortgage to pay. Castillo estimates he can get by for two more weeks.

He would not want to take government assistance, but he’s already applied for unemployment, and doubts he’ll be able to find a job before the first check comes in.

twoday posted:

twoday posted:

seattle plague rat posted:

wow okay

im not a chud

no but rlly i had no idea and couldnt tell from the vid. its just a weird dude talking about making video games

altho now that u mention it its very xtian bootstrappy

gotta look up his chud creds now

Homeless Friend posted:

just hang people in harnesses, way more efficient. You can take out the floor of the plane and let them poop and piss into the stratosphere

shovelbum posted:

So are we going to see 2008 recession style white collar layoffs at some point or are we just fully admitting that having a white collar job is a class marker and people can keep their wfh sinecures in a depression?

Giga Gaia posted:

it does and it owns. best movie about either of those poo poo heads. it also shows how they stole all their gui poo poo from xerox and dos from that nerd in an arizona shed or w/e

Gripweed posted:

Isn't Bill Gates also really worried about "overpopulation"?

FAUXTON posted:

lmaoing at the dumb binches who think indoor cats can spontaneously get covid

Gazpacho posted:

wish they would