'Not good': Reddit's verdict on the current US job market
A post on Reddit’s r/AskUS asked a question that a lot of people, especially those outside the US watching from afar, have probably wondered: is the US job market actually as terrible as the videos make it seem, or is that just content creators chasing clicks?
The original poster specifically called out IT jobs and asked whether things would get better or worse by 2030.
The responses suggest it’s not being exaggerated.
“Jobs numbers plummeted even with wage growth decreasing”
Several commenters pointed to the data as evidence that the situation is genuinely bad. One noted that the job numbers have been subject to consistent downward revisions, pointing to a pattern in 2025 where initial reports suggested 600,000 jobs created, only for the annual figure to be revised down to 181,000.
“Not good. Unemployment looks good mostly because people are leaving the workforce; most frightening, they aren’t primarily people retiring,” another commenter added. It’s a point that many have flagged repeatedly: when people stop looking for work altogether, they drop out of the unemployment count, which can make the headline figure look better than the underlying reality.
The outsourcing spiral
One commenter offered a view from inside a US company that painted a bleak picture of where things may be headed. “My company and I presume many others in the US are currently investing all our money into outsourcing and hiring cheaper employees rather than training and investing in what we currently have. I can imagine soon we’ll have an even worse problem of ‘lack of talent,’ which will necessitate even more outsourcing.”
It’s a cycle that many in tech and IT will recognise: Companies cut domestic headcount to reduce costs, institutional knowledge walks out the door, causing a brain drain, and the talent gap that results becomes the justification for the next round of outsourcing.
The people who remain are often stretched across roles that used to require multiple people, and the skills pipeline for the next generation of workers quietly deteriorates.
The bright spots (with caveats)
Not everyone in the thread was entirely negative. One commenter pointed out that jobs do exist, but with conditions attached. “Jobs all over the place in our area. Some you need skills, and most of them require you to show up and actually work. Some of it might be hard work, but decent pay.”
Another offered a sector-specific bright spot: “Certain industries like healthcare in cities will always be hiring, but the overall job market is not good.”
Both comments share a common thread: the jobs that exist tend to be in specific sectors, specific locations, and often in roles that require either specialist skills or a willingness to do physically demanding work. The middle ground of office-based, knowledge-work roles, which is the kind that IT graduates and professionals typically pursue, may be where the crunch is most severe.
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Will it get better by 2030?
The original poster’s question about the 2030 outlook went largely unanswered in the thread. It’s probably not because commenters didn’t have opinions, but because the honest answer is that nobody really knows. The variables at play, that is, AI adoption, outsourcing trends, economic cycles, policy changes, and the speed at which new industries create new roles, are too numerous and too interconnected to predict with confidence.
What the thread does suggest is that the people closest to the current market, whether as job seekers or as employers, are not expecting a quick turnaround. The shifts driving the current conditions, which include automation, offshoring, credential inflation, and the hollowing out of entry and mid-level roles, are not short-term fluctuations; they are longer-term changes to how work is organised and where it is done.
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