The rise in layoffs concentrated in these sectors isn't AI driven

[rcjordan]

AaronSojourner‬.org via bsky

Comments from states experiencing substantial increases in new claims in WE 1/31 came out today. Lots of states mentioning layoffs concentrated in blue collar sectors.

[ergophobe]

I don't have the reference handy, but there have been some new analyses of the headline jobs collapse "takes"

Old: rising unemployment among young college-educated people indicates a drying up of entry-level positions due to AI and we see the unemployment levels growing more similar between young people with college degrees and without, as reported on many fine news sites, including The Core.

New: employment among recent college grad continues to rise and, in fact, the absolute employment numbers have favored college-educated people.

Why: Unemployment measures people who are *looking* for jobs. Employment measures people who *have* jobs. When unemployment drops, a common reason is that people have *stopped* looking for work despite the fact that they still don't have a job or simply *ran out* of unemployment benefits and no long have a reason to report as "unemployed." They are simply jobless.

So all the hand-wringing about the evaporation of white-collar jobs among the youth was, by some accounts anyway, was an artifact of so many non-college-education people in their 20s simply giving up or running out their unemployment benefits before finding a job.