Remember when companies were begging for talent? Those days are long gone. The job market has completely flipped—what used to be a worker's paradise is now brutal for job seekers.

Post-pandemic hiring spree hit a wall hard. Now we're seeing extended job hunts, shrinking openings, and employers back in the driver's seat. This kind of economic shift matters more than people realize. When labor markets tighten and employment uncertainty rises, it ripples through everything—spending patterns change, consumer confidence takes hits, and investment behavior shifts accordingly.

For anyone tracking macro trends, this employment downturn signals broader economic pressures building up. The pendulum swinging from labor scarcity to labor surplus doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's connected to inflation dynamics, Fed policy, and ultimately, how capital flows across assets. Worth watching closely.