Job Market RESET? Why You’re Making LESS Money After COVID-19

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Time for little salary recalibration. We told you this was coming. It took a little longer than I expected. Five years out of fricking COVID. There were things were getting nuts, crazy companies hiring, paying kids ridiculous sums of money. Many of them working from home. All of a sudden you trained all of these kids that, hey, I’m worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I just graduated from college.

I want to work from home in my pajamas. Right. We told you that wasn’t going to last. Eventually, eventually reality reality steps in and that’s where we’re at right now. And we’re seeing it. And it’s not a bad thing. OK. I know a lot of younger people all upset. Deal with it. OK. Deal with it. You were overpaid.

You overpaid for a period of time. Are you trying to kid? Okay, I’ve got my job doing human resources for $150,000 a year and I just graduated from Jerkwater State, give me a break. Anyway, the salary difference between those who stay in their roles and those who change jobs has collapsed to its lowest level in 10 years. Job stayers increased their wages by about 4.6 % in January and February.

Meanwhile, those who switched jobs received only slightly more at 4.8%. Now that is a gap that has narrowed quite a bit where people who were switching jobs were getting bumps of almost 10%, which quite frankly, as an employer, it’s difficult. Is it not? Listen, you want to pay your people well.

but then you’re bringing people in, costs you money to train somebody, then all of a sudden the guy up the street says, hey, know what, well, you you’ve been trained, we’ll pay you more. And again, I’m all for competition. I don’t have any problem with competition at all when it comes to salaries, but again, you gotta take into the employer’s point. You’re training, you’re doing all these things, this is why you need to have various different contracts in place where you’re not allowed to jump ship here and there.

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They push back against that causes all sorts of issues, but it’s working its way out like the market does. Again, they’re talking about right now wages. People, what people are getting and what they’re expecting are have changed drastically. Again, people are saying that their offers are anywhere between 10 to $40,000 less. And again, they find anecdotes.

and these stories again, I don’t know where the Wall Street Journal finds these people, but they do. Here’s one. Here’s another anecdote. Kim Van Drilla, 42, had been working as a creative director for a major consumer brand up until this past fall when she was laid off. She was making more than $200,000. She’s finding during her job hunt, she’s finding the same role listed for 140 to 160. Okay.

she was laid off, major consumer brand. Again, I hate being the reality check here, but either that consumer, that major consumer brand is really falling off a cliff and doing very, very poorly, or Kim Vandrilla,

Kim Vandrilla didn’t show her bosses that she was worth her $200,000 salary. Again, jagged little pill, I know. Again, people, you have to come to grips with this. Again, I explain this to my kids, friend of my kids. You wanna go get a job, you get a job, you understand, you know what you’re getting paid, you better.

You better prove to your bosses, okay, that guess what? You’re worth every single penny that they’re paying you by producing. you a creative director for a major consumer brand? I don’t know. Maybe your creativity wasn’t showing in the bottom line because if it was, you wouldn’t have been laid off unless of course the company was falling apart. That’s just…

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the reality. But there’s you’re seeing this across the board and how you know, more and more people they’re finding new jobs and they’re less. Unfortunately, many of them. Many of them may have gotten themselves into mortgages and various different things that they might have afforded, which could cause a bit of a disconnect, which I don’t you know, you don’t want to see that happen. There was and like we presented it a major disconnect during COVID when it came to the salaries that are being offered.

Jobs have been slowly but surely drying up. Now, whenever you’re trying to find them, yes, the salaries are going to be coming in less. That’s just the reality. In certain industries, they overpaid. It is a, call it a course correction, recalibration, whatever it may be. That’s why it’s called the jobs market. It’s a market, market for talent. And again, say it again, all young people listening to this right now, okay, whatever job you get.

You make sure. You make sure that guess what? You are invaluable to that company. You’re bringing in the bucks. Okay? That’s what you’re there for. Want to make sure you’re not getting fired? Demonstrate your worth. Watchdogonwallstreet.com.