Not being a contrarian or an alarmist or anything, but its just something I've noticed every time I scroll the microsoft news sidebar on my computer. Every other article is something about a plant closure, or X company shutting down a location and laying off X number of people, etc.
I figure its just the media trying to make Trump and his tariffs look bad, especially since most of them are either smaller/regional businesses with aging equipment that refused to update and get with the times, older companies that have been going through the liquidation process since like 2018 and are just now finalizing it, or just complete crap companies making microgreens or some fake meat or something.
But it's just something I noticed and I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same pattern.
The economy right now is objectively shit. I mean we are at war and this depression is over a century in the making. I just wish Trump would be honest with us. We are experiencing mass layoffs and prices are not coming back down. The only reason silver is soaring is bc of the inflation. I wish he would just say "Look, we're fighting the bankers and it'll be tough for a while but we'll get through this for the better."
Hell, I wish Trump would start going after the ghost jobs. Companies should not be getting a tax break for listing jobs they've no intention of filling. He's not wrong that we're in a poor position in the tech sector, where we need to rely on H1Bs until we get schools back to skilling people up here instead of brainwashing them, though.
I work in tech, and to be honest I've grown tired of it, especially with all the AI crap (that Trump is also trying to champion), and I wanna get out of it. The issue there is this wonky crap where entry-level jobs pay $17-$20/hr but want either a year plus experience, or a degree. No one wants to invest in training anymore, and apprenticeships in the trades are few and far between. Seems like gone are the days when you could get into the trades and gain experience doing the work. They want you to have an associates in something before you can even get your foot in the door. Or maybe this is the downside of living in a tech and medical city.
Rant over..
The trades are rough. They constantly say they are struggling to find candidates, but then when candidates come they give them nothing. I feel as though this is trade school propaganda...just like pro-university propaganda....it's all the same designed to extract your $ and time.
The trades need workers but the workers available - young workers- have zero work ethic!! I have two sons in the trades and their work ethic is above and beyond, the apprentices coming on to the scene have zero work ethic. I blame this on the ‘give me give me’ attitude the government has been enabling in the upcoming workforce.
I know of two young men in my family, early twenties, both in Florida (west and central), both trying to get into the electrical trades. The first went to trade school (nonunion) for two years before he gave up. He's a quiet guy, but they continually "changed the goalposts" about when companies were supposedly taking on apprentices. It never happened. I don't know the full story, but the other guy essentially said the same thing and was also going to a nonunion trade school. Funny enough, he's even quieter, with no blood relation outside of Adam and Eve. Is that the issue here, quiet men in the trades, or are the trade schools lying out of their asses too?
Absolutely.