Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

9 points by adinhitlore 35 days ago | 24 comments

or is just me? looks like jobs or personal real estate sales are failing me hard...if i was younger (now late 30s) i would've considered a fake firefighter stripper path, for now i'd persist on this cursed route.

csomar 35 days ago |

I have been out of work for roughly two years, though I should note that, for religious reasons, I have limited my search to positions involving Rust. Toward the end of last year, however, it seemed that the situation was beginning to improve: new job postings appeared that looked credible, and by the start of this year I had two interviews (both initiated by companies themselves). In one case, I advanced to the later stages of the process and was close to receiving an offer. So I was hopeful things will turn around.

I think, now, given what's happening in the Gulf, you can firmly assume that the recovery will fully stop; if not worse. It's safer to assume that this will not resolve any time soon. I am from near the region, and I know a few friends who had to go back to the country because their jobs/workplace was affected. So that's one job market that's now bust.

Interest rates will remain high, if not go higher. Life will get significantly more expensive with $100+ oil. This will be a global pain, unfortunately.

giantg2 31 days ago | |

$100+ oil should be the least of your cost fears, especially given that the $100/barrel panic threshold from 5-10 years ago should be more like $150-200 today due to inflation over that time. Trade issues (China restricting exports, etc), currency devaluation, national debt, and macro effects of shifting demographics are setting a pretty stark stage.

raw_anon_1111 34 days ago | |

I am curious - what does choosing only Rust have to do with religion? Or am I taking your statement to literally?

andyjohnson0 34 days ago | | |

Not the OP, but I interpreted "religious" as something like a strong, unyielding preference. As in "I wear my helmet religiously when cycling."

ksherlock 34 days ago | | |

See the Epistle of James (James 5:3)

"And their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire."

chistev 34 days ago | |

How have you survived for 2 years without a job?

notahacker 34 days ago | | |

all comes down to accumulated savings and personal burn rate. Much easier for some people than others to budget for, but generally "software developer" isn't one of the more difficult positions to earn the right to be picky...

nicbou 34 days ago |

Fewer people migrate to Germany, and those who already migrated struggle to find jobs. My website helps people settle in Germany. Many of my colleagues are relocation consultants. They feel the difference. I spoke with someone at the city's talent and business promotion board and they see it too.

I have much more unemployed friends and they stay unemployed longer. Employers have started requiring fluent German.

For me, AI is a bigger threat. It wrecked my prospects as a developer, which was always my fallback if the site failed. Then LLMs and AI overviews started wrecking my traffic. It made me divert a lot of attention away from making the website helpful, towards making it resilient.

thiago_fm 34 days ago | |

If nicbou the builder is having a hard time, that's all the economic downturn data point I need.

I share a similar sentiment about Germany. I mean, we do have a recession for a couple of years already.

As a Software Developer, I've experienced layoffs of International companies just nuking their German team, for both cost and law risks (from people trying to create a worker council and the like).

I'm still employed because of my YOE, my skills & a wide network of people that have seen the quality of my work, but I see even previous CTOs and great engineers without a job.

Maybe in the years ahead, I might need to work doing something else.

I've always wanted to go to trade school and run my own business anyways, just didn't due to software engineering being so fun, interesting, challenging and ofc, well-paid.

I've been practicing my German a lot (C1+), so in worst case scenario I can do other work, maybe become an electrician or something that involves moving atoms, rather than bits.

nicbou 33 days ago | | |

Do you see an impact on how people behave at work?

markus_zhang 32 days ago |

Still employed, but I’m afraid layoff may come at any moment, and then I may never find a similar job, ever. If I get laid off I probably need to start a training and go into a trade ASAP.

al_borland 34 days ago |

My salary hasn't kept up with inflation, but I had some really good years before that, while keeping my expenses low, so I've been ok. I've always been pretty obsessed with keeping my fixed costs low, which helps in times like these.

I have been questioning if I need to adjust some things based on what seem to be higher monthly costs, or if I've just had a few months of one-off expenses that make it feel that way. It would probably take me a few hours to sit down and figure this out and I haven't had the chance.

icedchai 32 days ago |

I am presently employed, but it has been difficult to find a new job. The market is worse than the dot-com crash, great financial crisis, or 2020.

sylware 35 days ago |

I am affected my a political choice, which is law which did happen in 2015/2016 in my country (EU member state).

This have been disastrous: the web sites of my administration have been replaced by web apps, of course requiring one of the web engines from the WHATNG cartel.

bjourne 34 days ago |

I'm affected by inflation. Salary increases have not kept up. Not at all.