Some economists say these trends may be short term in nature and little cause for concern on their own. Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard, noted that the uptick in unemployment for college-educated workers was only modestly larger than the increase in unemployment overall, and that unemployment for both groups remained low by historical measures.
I think this is like the quote I know that goes ‘when your neighbor gets laid off, its a recession. When you get laid off its a depression’. Regardless of how ’low’ unemployment is historically, it is also trending up for the first time in a long time, especially for college educated workers who might not have experienced this trend before. Best of luck to everyone out there looking right now.
Quote Citation: Noam Scheiber, “Has the Decline of Knowledge Work Begun?”, March 25, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/business/economy/white-collar-layoffs.html