By Ricardo Lezama 
As job creation and unemployment continue to be hot topics, they have also defined the political landscape, with President Biden praised for focusing on creating jobs at a national level rather than catering to partisan interests. According to Axios, as the administration tenure comes to a close, the Biden administration added more jobs than Obama or Trump. As jobs became plentiful, the risk of too high growth and potential inflation has increased causing the FED to continue the course of not reducing interest rates, lest money become too cheap. According to the US labor department, December added ” 256,000 jobs in the final month of 2024, while the unemployment rate is down to 4.1%.
Prospects for 2025
On the other hand, former President Trump has been criticized for putting wind industry and so-called ‘green jobs’ at risk. His weird fascination with birds has sullied the image of renewable wind energy.
With the jobs report overpowering Obama and Trump numbers, Biden leaves a stable economy behind, but now Trump and his asset focused policies are going to make for an economy that will be unpredictable for all but the most connected participants.
Deregulation may seem attractive for those who belief in trickle down economics, but it may just squeeze out smaller players who can not compete with giant tech companies and reduce overall consumer offerings. The prospect of a Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump and Peter Thiel approved cabal of data harvesters orienting the population into a frenzied Joe Rogan style philosophy is annoying to say the least. It is superficiality unchained, economics of the tech bro culture.
Nevertheless, the story does vary sector by sector and automation is thought to be making an impact in both information technology and finance where somewhat repetitive sequences and even jobs themselves are being automated Microsoft made headlines as it announced further layoffs early this year in a continued push for restructuring. This move is part of the tech giant’s plan to streamline operations, building on the previous significant workforce reduction in 2023 where 10,000 jobs were slashed. The cutbacks are being observed across various sectors, with the tech industry being no exception.
For Intel, the past year has been devastating as a bloated middle management and nepotism has finally caught up with a firm once so revered for cutting edge hardware. Several tech companies are realizing the impacts of poor management and are being forced to revamp their protocols, compensation structure and overall numbers, and they can’t blame DEI for everything.
On the flip side, concerns have been raised regarding the types of jobs available, with criticism being levelled against low-paying service jobs and the existence of nepotism when it comes to filling high-paying positions. The vitality of “real jobs” as compared to earnings through social media is also a concern, with critiques suggesting that social media earnings result in “performative slop”. This sentiment indicates an evident skepticism towards the idea of digital platforms as credible sources of income.