💬 Issue #1: Big Layoff SZN

Apple and Meta fall off, NYC Doom Loop is here, and nobody has a job anymore.

Welcome to Friday - and to the first ever issue of Everyone is Typing... (or "EiT"). No time like the present, let's get into it.

Today's menu:

  • Apple and Meta Fall Off the List

  • The NYC Doom Loop is Coming (or is it here already?)

  • Absolutely Everyone is Laying People Off

APPLE, META NO LONGER COOL

It's the first time in a long time that Glassdoor's 100 best places to work didn't feature Facebook Meta or Apple. Gasp. Egad. How could this be?

Maybe because even writing this headline hurt a little inside since it supposes that Facebook Meta was remotely cool at one point.

Meta makes sense since they're foisting weird sweaty goggles onto people while their ad business goes through the floor in the wake of the Apple iPhone adpocalypse.

The Apple news is a little harder to grok with. Apple has long since been the paragon of a place people want to work both at their corporate HQ, stores, and factories. Has the beloved giant gone boring after becoming mostly a media and finance company aside from the iPhone? (Apple, hey, just keep making Ted Lasso, please.)

The Glassdoor survey may show some weakness in comparing companies on a likert scale considering the #1 spot on the list is some company named Gainsight. What do they have that Apple doesn't -- work/life balance? That'd be weird.

HYBRID WORK AND THE NYC "DOOM LOOP"

Some academics think NYC might be entering an "urban doom loop" over this whole nobody-coming-back-to-offices-in-Manhattan thing.

Is this serious? Probably maybe.

Here's the deal: People not coming into Manhattan to work highly paid office jobs means less tax revenue for New York, which means spending cuts, and so on. Rinse, repeat, and all of a sudden you're surrounded by empty Blue Bottle coffee shops.

The Governor and Mayor had some heady statements on how "hybrid is here to stay" that I'm sure made everyone feel better. Definitely.

Coincidentally, we also wrote up a "What is Hybrid Work - A Short History" on the subject because it was surprising where it came from and who's currently "winning" at it. Worth a peek.

Also on News To Make You Feel Bad: Nine Inch Nail's Downward Spiral will have been out for three decades next year. You're welcome.

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FED SUCCESSFULLY SMASHES JOB MARKET TO PIECES AS PLANNED

Apparently everyone is laying people off to kick off the new year. The notices are rolling in as fast as we can type 'em.

I don't want to be a downer here but there are too many more to count.

Real-time footage of the US tech labor market.

Now whyyyyy exactly is this happening? Just a few months ago the applied-to-hired loop was about 3.5 seconds. There's a few key reasons for the downturn:

  1. Overhiring. Plain and simple, tech companies dramatically overhired to get ahead of their peers. Money was cheap and big growth came with big rewards. Whoops.

  2. Seasonality. Retailers specifically bulk up their teams before the Holidaze hit. When January rolls around revenues usually roll down and staffing gets cut first. Additionally, in-person retailers did better than expected this year while internet sales were slow.

  3. The Fed's Ratehammer. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates on loans with the specific purpose of crushing cooling the labor market so inflation comes under control.

The third one is a real doozy to workers. Raising interest rates to hurt the labor market is a very long, very painful tool to curb inflation. The premise is if you raise interest rates people will spend less money, companies will have less revenue and lay people off, people spend less money, and so on. Over time prices should fall and jobs should recover, but nothing is certain.

Sheesh. Big sheesh.

WEB SNACKS

TWEET OF THE WEEK

That's it and that's all. Have an excellent week and do something we wouldn't do.

See ya in a week,

— 💬 The EiT Crew at Status Hero