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Resource Roundup/News Worth Reading
Here’s an update on the Meta lawsuit I shared last week.
An article from WaPo on the “white collar recession”.
My network is hiring!
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Remote sales rep in the sustainability space
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The Myth of the September Surge
I started creating workplace content in 2022, and that’s also when I first learned about the “September Surge” - the suggestion that we see a huge increase in hiring activity in September. (video walking through this data here).
The logic is sound here: summer is tough for hiring since people are traveling and juggling childcare which slows things down; once kids are back in school, things settle down and both jobseekers and hiring managers can prioritize hiring again.
And of course they know that November and December bring another round of PTO and holidays so they’re in a rush to wrap things up before that time hits.
Other theories are that as the year-end approaches, teams are hustling to spend their headcount budget.
But sadly, the data doesn’t back this up…
Above is data from 2021-2025, coming from the BLS so it’s about as accurate as we can get, and I marked each September in red.
In 3 of the last 5 years, we actually saw a decrease from August hiring.
In the 2 years where we saw an increase, it was modest, and did not reflect a “surge” of any sort.
What about overall job creation?
There’s probably something else standing out to you here as well: that overall job creation has slowed down significantly, and we know that 2026 is even worse than 2025.
I think it’s important to remember that 2021 was a huge anomaly as we recovered from the huge job loss of the pandemic. But about a decade ago, we set 150k jobs/month as the level of job creation needed to maintain steady unemployment, and we generally hovered at or above that number.
Compare that to the last 18 months and it becomes clearer exactly how off track we are with job creation, and then layer on that the majority of jobs that ARE being created are in fields like healthcare, trades, etc. and “white collar” professionals are simply locked out of the job market right now.
🙋Answering Your Questions🙋
Each week, I’ll answer one (or more!) of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here. |
What are your thoughts on grad school in this job market?
My personal thought here is that grad school is an investment and one I would only make if there’s a clear pay off or it’s something you are doing for personal development.
In general, grad school that pays off in terms of career progression includes:
professional degrees like medical school, law school, pharmacy, nursing, and MBAs (though quality matters here - an full-time MBA from a top-50 program has very different outcomes than an online MBA from a low-ranking program.
master’s of phds in STEM fields tend to pay off as they accelerate earnings for industry roles.
degrees that are required for career progression (for example, to be a school principal, you pretty much have to get a master’s in education.
and of course if it’s free or an employer is paying for it, you’ve got only upside!
On the flip side:
advanced degrees in humanities or social sciences don’t carry much weight in the private sector.
MBAs from lower ranked schools typically aren’;t going to give you the bump in income to offset the investment, nor will they give you the alumni network and access to accelerate your career. The same is true for law degrees in many regions as well.
Things I would consider:
How much debt am I taking on? if an employer is paying for it, there’s no downside to doing it, but if you’re taking on debt, then I’d want more guarantee of a payoff.
Opportunity cost: What else could you do with that money/time? You’re forgoing several years of salary, investment, etc. AND when it’s time to pay back that debt, that’s money that could have gone towards retirement, buying a home, etc.
What evidence is there that this will accelerate my career? Is this degree required? Does it carry a lot of weight within my field?
School/program reputation: it’s not popular to say this but the truth is that pedigree matters in a lot of companies so it just may not be worth pursuing a degree that isn’t going to carry weight with decision-makers.
There’s no predicting the future, so it’s hard to say whether a degree right now will pay off, but if you’re struggling to enter this job market anyway, it might be a place to park yourself for a few years while building new skills and hoping things improve.
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