Admittedly, my brain is a little scrambled at the moment, so hopefully someone here can help me follow along.
They’ve deported millions of workers out of the job market. Then why are so many places having massive layoffs, threats of layoffs, and hiring freezes? Should there be a massive abundance of job openings now?
Then again, if they’re implying that most of those immigrants didn’t work, then where did the whole immigrants took my job rhetoric go? And why would non-working immigrants require us to adjust our expectations down in the job market so much?
Are these double-reverse-plus-infinity immigrants, simultaneously not working and living off government benefits while also taking jobs from people, jobs which mysteriously vaporize the moment the immigrants are deported?
That aside: Less than 2 years ago, my small team at work was looking to hire more developers, a qa person, an assistant designer, and a project manager. Trump took office, and within months, the team I worked in was halved in size via layoffs, a hiring freeze was put in place, and several of the remaining folks were demoted (in exchange for otherwise staying employed). These days, nearly everybody I have talked to in various “office jobs” professional services fields mentioned that they are facing another round of layoffs and that there’s a hiring freeze in place.
No way their labor created more value than they extracted from the system. But that would be a like a free boost to GDP and prop up a larger job market benefiting citizens. No, the white man must be the victim here, i just need to figure out how…
There are a couple factors at play and ICE is actually a smaller one.
Tarrifs - Trumps approach makes everything in US more expensive and also adds uncertainty (because he uses them at a whim)
Policy Whiplash - Lots of tax/subsidy/regulation/grant changes disrupting business. This has disrupted existing projects and caused increase uncertainty in operating a business
Dollar loosing value - Aggression against allies/tariffs/etc. has caused allies to dump US bonds increasing our borrowing rate and hurting the dollar. This can be good for industry long term, but means less purchasing power and less confidence in the economy.
Overall, Trump causes uncertainty in the world and economy. Uncertainty usually causes people to be more careful/conservative leading to economic slowdown.
Oh I get it! I lost my job due to bullet item #2. I worked for a federal contractor. Had there been sufficient warning and a gradual shift in funding, I’m 99% confident that the company I worked for could have shifted gears and successfully pursued alternative funding, sparing thousands of good jobs. In fact, before Trump took office, we were already heading in that direction.
However, the Trump administration immediately and without precedent rescinded payments and cancelled signed contracts, which was disastrous and completely unrecoverable. Not only for my place of employment, but for thousands of others across the country.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the monetary and policy changes, it’s important that these changes take place at a cadence and with enough planning that allows business to adapt. That didn’t happen. It’s wrong and immoral how things went down. It’s absolutely criminal that contracts are simply cancelled and payments pried back.
Admittedly, my brain is a little scrambled at the moment, so hopefully someone here can help me follow along.
They’ve deported millions of workers out of the job market. Then why are so many places having massive layoffs, threats of layoffs, and hiring freezes? Should there be a massive abundance of job openings now?
Then again, if they’re implying that most of those immigrants didn’t work, then where did the whole immigrants took my job rhetoric go? And why would non-working immigrants require us to adjust our expectations down in the job market so much?
Are these double-reverse-plus-infinity immigrants, simultaneously not working and living off government benefits while also taking jobs from people, jobs which mysteriously vaporize the moment the immigrants are deported?
That aside: Less than 2 years ago, my small team at work was looking to hire more developers, a qa person, an assistant designer, and a project manager. Trump took office, and within months, the team I worked in was halved in size via layoffs, a hiring freeze was put in place, and several of the remaining folks were demoted (in exchange for otherwise staying employed). These days, nearly everybody I have talked to in various “office jobs” professional services fields mentioned that they are facing another round of layoffs and that there’s a hiring freeze in place.
They didn’t deport millions. They have brutalized people enough where seasonal workers don’t come to the U.S. or the ones here don’t show up to work
and all the goods and services those people would be consuming have disappeared in a puff of logic
No way their labor created more value than they extracted from the system. But that would be a like a free boost to GDP and prop up a larger job market benefiting citizens. No, the white man must be the victim here, i just need to figure out how…
There are a couple factors at play and ICE is actually a smaller one.
Overall, Trump causes uncertainty in the world and economy. Uncertainty usually causes people to be more careful/conservative leading to economic slowdown.
The saddest part is ICE isn’t even deporting that many more people than Biden or Obama (based on numbers). They’re actually just detaining tons of people - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/aug/29/trump-immigration-ice-cbp-data
Yeah, TACO just did his deportations in the most obnoxious way possible.
I would call it cruel and illegal, but yeah there really isn’t anything he’s good at.
Oh I get it! I lost my job due to bullet item #2. I worked for a federal contractor. Had there been sufficient warning and a gradual shift in funding, I’m 99% confident that the company I worked for could have shifted gears and successfully pursued alternative funding, sparing thousands of good jobs. In fact, before Trump took office, we were already heading in that direction.
However, the Trump administration immediately and without precedent rescinded payments and cancelled signed contracts, which was disastrous and completely unrecoverable. Not only for my place of employment, but for thousands of others across the country.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the monetary and policy changes, it’s important that these changes take place at a cadence and with enough planning that allows business to adapt. That didn’t happen. It’s wrong and immoral how things went down. It’s absolutely criminal that contracts are simply cancelled and payments pried back.
Yeah, anyone working in the government space has been screwed over big time by this admin - except for the people they’re funneling money to.