"I'm 58 And I'm Laid Off"

Thanks, Donald. So Glad I Voted For Ya

Courtesy:MarketWatch

News headlines can deceive. Sometimes.

Take Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example. The early headline in The New York Times on Friday morning read, “U.S. employers added 228,000 jobs in March, far more than forecast”.

Now, if you stopped reading at that point, you’d assume that the economy was doing alright. So, why all the fuss about Trump’s layoffs (and these are Trump’s layoffs – not DOGE’s. Trump has okayed DOGE, ergo the President who said he’s for the American worker, ain’t really. What a devastating surprise)?

“U.S. employers accelerated hiring in March, even as some data suggest underlying weaknesses in the labor market…” reads the opening line in that early NYT story.

However, let’s say you decided to dig a little deeper and went to the source of the employment numbers – the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What you’d find there would amount to a different take. Here are a few of the key points in the BLS report on Friday:

• Employment increased in retail trade, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike.

• Federal government employment declined.

• The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.8 million, changed little in March. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

In essence, then, the creation of 228 thousand jobs was partially the end of a strike in the retail sector, so they weren’t new jobs created, per se. What has already shown up, though, is the decline in federal government employment and this is a direct result of the DOGE actions.

The Funky Thing About Unemployment Numbers

The other critical element of unemployment numbers is that, unless you are actively looking for a job, you are not counted as unemployed, But if you are unemployed and happen not to be looking at the moment, then you join the ranks of 5.9 million other Americans who are in a similar situation - not counted, therefore not visible.

Why someone who is unemployed wouldn’t be looking for a job can boil down to a few reasons:

• They are unwell or temporarily disabled

• They are a fulltime caregiver for a spouse, parent or child (see this week’s Art 2 Aging podcast, titled Stop Waiting For The Government for more on caregivers and employers)

• They have stopped looking for the time being out of frustration at not being able to find a job for months at a time. In fact, U6 unemployment which indicates those who’ve been out of work for six months or longer is stuck at 8.4%, up from 8.2% in January

But there’s another side to the unemployment numbers which speaks not of what has happened but what is going to happen. And that’s the Challenger Report on layoffs, produced regularly by Challenger, Grey and Christmas, a highly regarded global outplacement firm.

What Lies Ahead Is Worse

On Thursday, April 3, the Challenger Report’s top headline was:

Federal Cuts Dominate March 2025 Total: 275,240 Announced Job Cuts, 216,670 from DOGE Actions

Here are the two opening paragraphs of the Challenger Report:

“U.S.-based employers announced 275,240 job cuts in March, a 60% increase from the 172,017 cuts announced one month prior. It is up 205% from the 90,309 cuts announced in the same month in 2024, which was the highest monthly total recorded last year, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] plans to eliminate positions in the federal government. It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs,” Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.”

The report goes on with a litany of job cut announcement woes, largely the result of the Trump administration’s desire to put people out of work. Challenger, Grey and Christmas cite these areas of the economy taking it hard:

1.Federal government

2. Technology

3. Retail

4. Consumer and Automotive

The report makes for gloomy reading as it points to what lies ahead in the coming months. Combined with diving consumer confidence, a tanking global stock market, a global tariff war and further DOGE cuts, the U.S. economy is a not-so-slow-motion train wreck happening before our eyes.

It Sucks To Be Older Now

Caught up in the middle of this mess are those over 55 who, according to the AARP’s Employment Data Digest for February, make up 23% of job seekers out of work for six months or longer.

28% of laid off federal workers are over 55, according to Pew Research. Happy Easter.

Can we anticipate this dismal job outlook to improve by summer? Or by the fall? Or the winter? Not likely.

In fact, it will get worse for those who are older adults needing work because they can’t afford to retire, especially against the backdrop of ageism in the workplace.

Can older Americans expect the current president, himself an unhealthy 78 year old (he’ll be 79 in June) to help them? Hell, will he help anyone other than Donald Trump?

You just have to cast an eye at the likely future of Social Security, specifically Medicare and Medicaid, for your answer.

Out of college, money spent

See no future, pay no rent

All the money’s gone

Nowhere to go

That Magic Feelin’ - The Beatles, Abbey Road