Largest Labor Shortage Ever?

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👷 Largest labor shortage ever?

🤨 This employee was paid BILLIONS to rejoin the company

✖️ The latest in layoffs

And, of course, MEMES!

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WORKFORCE

Largest Labor Shortage Ever?

U.S. employers will soon face “the largest labor shortage the country has ever seen,” according to a labor market report published last week.

Lightcast, a labor market data and analysis firm, says there are several factors indicating that the U.S. labor market may be in rough shape going forward.

The main factors they cited were: a “Silver Tsunami” of Baby Boomers retiring; falling childbirth rates; younger generations desiring office-based jobs requiring a college degree; and a shrinking number of working-age adults participating in the labor force.

There’s also a job misalignment problem; women are earning college degrees in record numbers, but filling less than 2% of jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields facing critical labor shortages, such as plumbing, HVAC and auto maintenance.

Meanwhile, prime-age men are disappearing from the labor force driven by an uptick in substance abuse and incarceration.

Lightcast added that it’s not all doom and gloom, but employers will have to “anticipate and adapt.”

Their advice to companies is to open the door wide to reach as many applicants as possible by keeping job descriptions clear and oriented toward future training and reskilling opportunities.

Well, the biggest labor shortage in history means it’s never been a better time to be a job seeker! With countless open roles and companies desperate to hire, why not let AI do all the work for you to find the best possible job according to your skills and expertise? Job Party has you covered! Check it out for less than $20/month.

SALARIES

Company Pays BILLIONS to Bring Employee Back

Imagine quitting a job and your former company offers you $2.7 billion to come work for them again.

That was the case for Google employee, Noam Shazeer.

And yes, you read that right; that’s billion with a “B.”

Here’s what happened:

Noam Shazeer joined Google in 2000 as one of its first few hundred employees. In 2021, he co-authored a research paper that played a big role in kicking off the AI boom.

Shortly after, he quit his job at Google to start his own company when his employer refused to release a chatbot he developed. Shazeer created a startup called Character.AI featuring the chatbot he developed while he was at Google.

It seems like Google realized they messed up and were willing to do pretty much anything to get him back. The tech giant recently bought full licensing rights to Character.AI for $2.7 billion in a deal that included a clause where Shazeer would rejoin Google as an employee.

The payout was unusually large for a founder who didn’t sell his company or take it public. Experts in the space have speculated that the main reason for the huge number was just to get Shazeer back on the payroll after he had publicly criticized Google for being “too risk-averse” regarding AI.

Now, the 48-year-old engineer is one of three people leading Google’s efforts to build the next version of its most powerful AI technology, Gemini.

Moral of the story: create a startup, leave your job, sell the startup back to your old company for billions.

Simple and easy career path for everyone looking to climb the corporate ladder!

LAYOFFS

The Latest in Layoffs

Total September layoffs are up YoY, but down substantially compared to the summer months

Below is a list of the latest layoffs (via MacroEdge):

• Vail Resorts is eliminating around 14% of its corporate workforce, or about 1,000 employees.

• Big Lots to close around 550 stores, roughly 40% of its footprint, after bankruptcy filing.

• General Motors could lay off approximately 250 temporary UAW workers at its Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana by next week.

• Stellantis is planning indefinite mass layoffs of union-represented workers "across its footprint" and is cutting seasonal supplemental employees as well.

• Disney Layoffs Underway: Hundreds Of US-Based Corporate Staffers To Be Impacted.

• Blue Raven, a solar company, is cutting almost 800 jobs in Utah while StubHub will cut around 300 in the state.

• Southwest Airlines is planning to reduce service to and from Atlanta next year, cutting more than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions, with more cuts on the way nationwide.

• USAA is reportedly undergoing a round of job cuts.

• Nashville-based Asurion to reportedly cut 20% or more of its workforce, impacting around 4,000 employees.

• Akzo Nobel to cut 2,000 jobs.

• The Washington Post to lay off a quarter of staffers from software unit.

• Online ordering provider Olo is laying off 9% of its staff to cut costs and set the company up for long-term growth.

• Hershey Chocolate laid off some employees this week as part of a restructuring.

• GE to lay off up to 900 in offshore wind division. Blown right out of the office.

• 2,938 job cuts filed in California last Thursday - including IBM, Cisco, GXO, & Converse.

• Atlantic Records will lay off hundreds of employees after executives depart.

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