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Comment by juunpp | Hacker News Reader

I don't know, seems like a weak article. It just names the obvious examples of companies ("tech"!) that over-hired and all that. Others still celebrated the increased demand but also planned ahead, and not everyone has laid off. Guess they don't talk about those.

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Yeah, also doesn't mention the super low 3.4% unemployment rate the US still has. Most of the people being laid off are being re-hired within a very short timeframe. The Fed has wanted unemployment back up to ~6% for over a year and can't get it.

> The Fed has wanted unemployment back up to ~6% for over a year and can't get i

Why is the Fed interested in that and why does it want that number to be higher?

It's not that they specifically want less people to do work, rather, high employment is a symptom of an overheating economy in which hiring is (for now) cheap and it's difficult to replace people and meet high demand, because most people who would be looking for a job already have one.

My understanding is that it will reduce overall demand because people cutback on spending to prepare for a recession, or simply don't have the spare cash to buy because their financial situation changes by becoming unemployed (or someone in the same financial household did).

The Fed believes higher unemployment will bring down inflation. Also, higher unemployment increases labor market flexibility so that companies can easily adjust their labor force based on fluctuations in the market. Low unemployment makes it hard for companies looking to hire and expand.

The companies that celebrated the increased demand but planned ahead did not fall for the forever fallacy. They took advantage of the increased demand but didn't overhire to nearly the same extent. Apple did a much better job at this than Google and Meta.

Interesting, so it appears that you advocate expanding contractors and then firing them over full-time employment like with Apple.. I think it's likely we'll move to that environment naturally.

I was thinking the same thing. How does one's "plan ahead" doesn't include firing people they overhired?

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