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Why Gen Z is struggling to find jobs despite a rising economy · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:07
  You're listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:11
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:13
  There's a new Gallup poll that came out very recently.
• 0:17
  And it says that U.S.
• 0:18
  worker thriving declines as job market pessimism grows.
• 0:24
  I'm going to dig into this Gallup poll and break it apart and talk about the missed opportunity that Americans are basically letting go right before their very eyes.
• 0:37
  And I I get that times are tough for a lot of people.
• 0:42
  I really get that.
• 0:43
  I understand that.
• 0:44
  I empathize with that.
• 0:47
  But I really think that there's a certain shift in our culture.
• 0:51
  And that people are getting a little bit exasperated.
• 0:54
  And the discouragement levels are definitely creeping up.
• 0:58
  And so I want to talk about how we guard against that and how we seize opportunity because that's something that we're not really taught how to do.
• 1:08
  We're still being taught, our young people are being taught that going to college is the only way, that you go to college, find the best college, don't worry about the debt.
• 1:22
  Don't even think about the numbers, don't crunch the numbers.
• 1:26
  And uh life is gonna go on.
• 1:30
  I just recently had my daughter to a doctor, and uh she's about to turn 16, and he was talking to her about her future, and he said about college, and he's like, colleges are really expensive, and though he was telling her that she ought to find an affordable college, he's like, Well, let's say that you get $5,000 in in scholarships.
• 1:56
  What do you do for the rest of the money?
• 1:59
  And my daughter was like, Well, that's like kind of that awkward thing, like, okay, what kind of answer is he looking for?
• 2:08
  And we talk about all this stuff very openly in our in our family, and uh he looks at me and he says, Well, you get it from dad.
• 2:16
  And I was like, No, that's not the way it works, but I wasn't there to argue, and uh it's just that mentality, like you see it literally everywhere that people are like, Well, you know, you just you dig in, you go to college because that's what young people do, and you'll figure it out along the way.
• 2:36
  You get your degree that it's uh whatever degree you settle on, not really what you're passionate about, it's what you settle on, and then the debt would just kind of work itself out.
• 2:49
  Dad will take care of it, and it's hurting a lot of people.
• 2:55
  And I think the uh the debt is knocking on the door right now, and Gen Z especially, they're the ones who are really figuring this out.
• 3:07
  And uh hopefully it's not too late.
• 3:12
  But a lot of Gen Z are figuring this out, and they're like, wait, our our degree is literally not helping us get a job at all.
• 3:20
  And we spent all that money, and we were promised that we were gonna get a job right out of college and that we're gonna get this great job, this high-paying job.
• 3:28
  Well, according to recent studies, people want employers, that is, they want job ready people on day one.
• 3:37
  They want people to step right into the job to be able to get quick training and be able to go to work.
• 3:43
  So you know who they're hiring?
• 3:46
  They're hiring older people.
• 3:48
  They're hiring Gen X.
• 3:51
  It's kind of an interesting shift, and it's not what I would expect.
• 3:55
  I always thought that uh employers were on this big push to hire a younger people because they don't have to pay them as much.
• 4:03
  But it turns out that they're willing to pay a little bit more because they want the job ready people.
• 4:09
  They want the people with experience and somebody who's ready to walk right into that job on day one and get the job done.
• 4:17
  So anyway, I want to read a little bit about this Gallup poll because it's uh this was fascinating to me.
• 4:25
  New Gallup data confirm that the personal and professional environment of U.S.
• 4:32
  workers was worse at the end of 2025 than at any point in the past three years across several important metrics.
• 4:41
  For the first time since Gallup began tracking the life evaluation of US, the US workforce, more workers report struggling in their lives.
• 4:52
  49%, then thriving, 46%.
• 4:57
  A stark reversal from 2022 and 23 when more than half of employees were classified as thriving.
• 5:06
  This is coupled with U.S.
• 5:07
  worker engagement dropping to the lowest level on record in the past decade at 31% engaged employees.
• 5:18
  Similar trends cut across multiple dimensions of economic perceptions, confidence in the job market has collapsed to a new low, with just 28% of workers saying now is a good time to find a quality job, down from 70% in mid-2022.
• 5:38
  More than half of workers are actively looking for a new job, or at least watching for opportunities.
• 5:45
  And nearly half of those actively searching report it has been a negative experience with many unable to land an interview.
• 5:54
  So I want to break this down a little bit because this is really, really interesting and fascinating to me.
• 5:59
  And you have to understand, you have to put this in into context.
• 6:04
  Because I think the honeymoon phase is really over.
• 6:08
  And we all know there is a honeymoon phase after you've been in a crippling environment.
• 6:16
  And then all of a sudden things open up.
• 6:18
  Well, what was that crippling environment?
• 6:20
  Well, of course, it was the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 6:24
  Everything was shut down, uncertainty was was really high.
• 6:28
  Inflation was through the sky.
• 6:33
  It was so high.
• 6:35
  Inflation was really, really high.
• 6:37
  Uh, a lot of people lost their lives.
• 6:40
  Uh, it just it was a lot of figuring out, and a lot of quite frankly, a lot of emotion was tied to that for all of us.
• 6:48
  Look at what the housing market did.
• 6:50
  I know in my area, way out in the country.
• 6:52
  I mean, we're an hour and a half from Pittsburgh, and there were people paying cash for real estate for every single house, and that's never happened in my area ever.
• 7:07
  And there were people from Pittsburgh coming out to the country, and they just wanted to get away.
• 7:14
  They wanted to get away from the uh the busyness of city life and kind of self-reflect and get their little cabin out in the country, and so people are paying 30, 40,000 above asking price and paying cash.
• 7:30
  My town was not used to that.
• 7:33
  I have a really good friend, uh, actually, he's a neighbor, and he said he had this elderly gentleman.
• 7:41
  He came from Pittsburgh, and he insisted his house wasn't even on the market, my friend.
• 7:47
  His house wasn't even listed on the market.
• 7:48
  This guy just happened to be driving by.
• 7:51
  He liked the house, and I don't understand why he picked that house out because it's there's nothing that makes it stand out, at least in my mind.
• 8:02
  It's not uh isolated, it's in a little quiet neighborhood, but for whatever reason, this gentleman from Pittsburgh really liked that house, and he wanted it.
• 8:13
  He's like, I'll I'll pay.
• 8:14
  He went up to something like $50,000 above what market value was.
• 8:22
  And my friend was like, I I had to keep telling him I'm I'm not looking to sell my house.
• 8:28
  And the guy said, I don't care.
• 8:30
  I want your house.
• 8:32
  What will it take?
• 8:34
  And so my friend asked him, what is it that makes you so persistent that you want this house?
• 8:41
  And he said, well, it's not necessarily this particular house, but he said, there are no houses available.
• 8:48
  The housing market, if you remember, I mean, it was really interesting what happened to the housing market during COVID.
• 8:55
  It was really, really difficult to find houses because they all sold, especially out in the country.
• 9:02
  I mean, they got scarfed up across America big time.
• 9:07
  And a lot of that too was was private investors.
• 9:12
  And I talk about this all the time.
• 9:14
  You know, people look for opportunity.
• 9:16
  Wealthy people look for opportunity.
• 9:19
  People who think that way look for opportunity, and that's exactly what we're gonna talk about today.
• 9:24
  How do we look for opportunities in a market that seems like it's doing really bad?
• 9:30
  How do we look for opportunities?
• 9:32
  I was talking about the stock market during the war.
• 9:37
  That people are panicking, they were flipping out over, oh my goodness, Trump is he's crashing the stock market, and he started this war, and this is gonna be an endless war, and people are panic, selling their uh their retirement accounts, cashing out on retirement.
• 9:53
  And I was I was wearing that uh sounding that warning bell saying don't do it.
• 9:59
  Well.
• 10:00
  Lo and behold, last week, President Trump, and he put that uh truth social out on Easter, and everybody flipped out about that.
• 10:12
  Because he's like, we're gonna bomb the living crap out of Iran.
• 10:16
  We're gonna bomb every bridge, every power plant, knowing full well that he wasn't gonna do it.
• 10:24
  But he's crazy enough, and he's erratic enough on purpose that even the terrorists, the terroristic regime and in Iran was begging for mercy.
• 10:36
  They're like, no, don't do it, Mr.
• 10:38
  President.
• 10:40
  You know, that's how he gets things done.
• 10:43
  We're gonna put 100% tariffs on on every country, knowing full well he's not gonna impose 100% tariffs.
• 10:51
  Look what he did with China.
• 10:52
  He actually did for a very short time just to mess with them and to bring them back to the negotiating table.
• 11:02
  And then uh I heard uh Dan Bongino talking about this the other day.
• 11:06
  He's like, yeah, he he promises 100% tariffs, knowing full well he's not gonna do it.
• 11:12
  And then the country's come back and they're like, Mr.
• 11:14
  President, we'll we'll settle for a 15% tariff.
• 11:18
  And then Trump's like, I heck, I was gonna go for only a 10% tariff, but yeah, we'll take 15%.
• 11:26
  You know, it's just how he thinks.
• 11:28
  And I'm not defending it.
• 11:31
  Not saying what what he does is right or wrong, but you have to understand how he thinks.
• 11:37
  He is a negotiator, and he does that by bullying and threatening things that he may or may not follow through on.
• 11:47
  But with Iran, he was never gonna bomb every single bridge and every single power plant in the country.
• 11:54
  And why would he not do that?
• 11:56
  Well, because the civilians, the innocent civilians depend on the infrastructure.
• 12:02
  And Trump knows that.
• 12:05
  But the regime, you know, actually what happened was China came back and they desperately need the oil because that was the whole thing.
• 12:13
  Trump is like open up the Strait of Hormuz.
• 12:17
  China came to Iran and was like, you guys got to take the deal.
• 12:24
  So really interesting things going on, but uh at any rate, when Trump announced that they were in negotiations, they were up against the clock and they were in negotiations with Iran.
• 12:38
  Look at what the market started doing.
• 12:41
  Look at look at how it started rebounding instantly.
• 12:46
  And I said during the war, that's the time to look for opportunities.
• 12:54
  That's the time to buy stocks at a discount.
• 12:57
  Because traditionally, every single US war that we've been involved in, the stock market has a history, it has a memory.
• 13:08
  And we can look at that and say, okay, it's it's always rebounded.
• 13:13
  So either this is going to be the exception, the exception to the rule, and it's not going to ever rebound because the markets hate Donald Trump, which I don't think is the case.
• 13:27
  Or option number two, the stock market is going to do what the stock market has always done, regardless of who the president is.
• 13:34
  The stock market doesn't care who the president is, it really doesn't.
• 13:38
  And the stock market behaves in pretty predictable ways.
• 13:44
  And so we look for opportunity.
• 13:48
  But right now, US workers are they're losing hope.
• 13:53
  They're pessimistic.
• 13:56
  They think that the economy is crashing.
• 13:59
  I assure you, it is it is not, at least not at this point.
• 14:03
  Doesn't mean that it that it won't in the future.
• 14:07
  But even if it does, it'll be temporary.
• 14:09
  It'll rebound.
• 14:11
  And so we look at history, we look for opportunity.
• 14:15
  But a lot of Americans aren't doing that.
• 14:17
  They feel stuck.
• 14:20
  And they're struggling.
• 14:22
  They're struggling in their own lives instead of thriving, or at least that's the perception.
• 14:27
  49% say that they're struggling in their lives.
• 14:30
  46% say that they're thriving.
• 14:34
  So why is that so different from 2022 and 23?
• 14:37
  Well, if you remember what was happening during COVID, it actually started during the pandemic.
• 14:43
  And it carried through till about the end of 23 or even into 2024.
• 14:49
  People were doing what?
• 14:51
  Recreation, outdoor stuff.
• 14:55
  They were buying the boat.
• 14:56
  They're like, life is short.
• 14:58
  We got to buy the boat.
• 14:59
  We got to buy the RV.
• 15:01
  We gotta, we gotta go travel.
• 15:02
  We gotta see the country.
• 15:05
  And people started spending money that they didn't have, but they didn't care because they were like, well, uh, we'd rather sacrifice a little bit of of our budget and do things with our family than to be stuck in our house, working a dead-end job, packing away a little bit of money, and uh life is just too short to do that.
• 15:26
  So we're gonna choose family time.
• 15:28
  We're gonna choose family over saving.
• 15:32
  And the RV market went absolutely wild.
• 15:38
  Wild during COVID.
• 15:41
  So just to look at these numbers real quick, the RV market during COVID, so 2020 to 22, there was a massive surge in demand.
• 15:48
  I mean, huge surge in demand.
• 15:51
  There was low inventory and high prices, demand far outpay outpaced supply, resulting in pretty much emptied dealer lots.
• 16:01
  Uh, it was a seller's market big time.
• 16:03
  Sellers had a lot of leverage.
• 16:05
  Many used RVs were appreciating in value, which rarely happens with motorhomes and RVs.
• 16:13
  They they usually depreciate really quickly.
• 16:16
  Uh the rapid demand overwhelmed supply chains, leading to quality control issues in manufacturers, uh RVs manufactured between 2020 and 23.
• 16:28
  How about now?
• 16:29
  Well, in 2024 to currently, there's a major market correction.
• 16:34
  The COVID hangover is wearing off.
• 16:37
  Travel habits are returning to normal.
• 16:39
  There's high inventory.
• 16:42
  Um plummeting used values, used RVs are pretty much worthless right now.
• 16:49
  And it's now a buyer's market, not a seller's market.
• 16:54
  So uh it's really interesting.
• 16:56
  Uh we're coming up on a break here, but I want to break this down more and just understand the psychology behind what's going on right now and why it's driving pessimism.
• 17:05
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• 19:21
  A new Gallup poll shows that U.S.
• 19:24
  workers thriving is declining as job market pessimism grows.
• 19:31
  And what's happening is basically people are checking out.
• 19:34
  So they're at work, they're kind of uh as they're working, they're looking for other jobs, they're scrolling along.
• 19:40
  Uh maybe they're doing a little doomsday scrolling at work.
• 19:43
  They're just kind of clocking in and and and they're there, but they're also missing a lot more work because they just don't care.
• 19:50
  Uh or they're getting themselves sick.
• 19:53
  That's uh a trend that they found in the Gallup poll.
• 19:57
  People are missing more sick days.
• 20:00
  And likely it's because they literally are making themselves sick, thinking about showing up to work.
• 20:06
  And it's a really difficult place to be.
• 20:09
  I mean, we've all been there.
• 20:10
  We've all been at jobs where we just feel like it sucks the life out of us.
• 20:16
  And I'm going to talk about that.
• 20:18
  Like, is this an issue of people just don't like their jobs?
• 20:22
  Or is this an issue of overall pessimism?
• 20:27
  Where people feel like there's greener grass on the other side.
• 20:31
  But then they find out pretty quickly that actually we can't even get a bite.
• 20:37
  You know, we're applying to all these jobs and we don't even get a bite.
• 20:40
  And it seems to be that that's the case.
• 20:42
  It seems to be that people were not necessarily initially upset with their job or disappointed with their job.
• 20:50
  That they started working at a job and they they they liked it at one time, but then pessimism starts creeping in.
• 21:04
  And we need more money.
• 21:05
  I think a lot of that's driven too by consumer spending.
• 21:10
  And if you look at the numbers on consumer spending and consumer debt, personal debt, it's the highest that it's ever been.
• 21:18
  People are now maxing out credit cards just to pay their bills.
• 21:23
  That's a growing trend that's happening right now.
• 21:26
  It's a terrible idea financially.
• 21:30
  That'll bring somebody to financial ruin pretty quickly.
• 21:34
  I've had friends who have lost homes because they started putting like the electric bill and you know all their utilities.
• 21:44
  They started paying on credit card, and it's basically in their mind, it was an IOU, and in their mind, they legitimately thought that they were going to pay it back.
• 21:53
  Well, they didn't factor in 30% interest rates.
• 21:58
  And they didn't factor in that when you own a house, there are always problems.
• 22:05
  There are always going to be things that take money.
• 22:09
  Your insurance.
• 22:14
  Your home insurance.
• 22:17
  Your um your taxes that come due every year.
• 22:23
  Yeah, the average tax is pretty high into the thousands.
• 22:29
  The annual tax that you pay on your property.
• 22:34
  So there are all these expenses, and you have to, you have to factor them in.
• 22:37
  You have to expect them.
• 22:39
  And believe it or not, a lot of people, according to the data, a lot of people don't plan for that.
• 22:46
  And they're like, well, I'll just figure it out.
• 22:49
  Maybe maybe I'll use my tax return money and I'll pay my property taxes with that.
• 22:57
  Well, that's living on a hope and a dream.
• 23:01
  That's not a plan.
• 23:02
  That's a hope and a dream.
• 23:05
  So a lot of Americans are finding themselves pressured to pay back this debt, this mounting debt.
• 23:12
  And it's making them feel like their jobs are dead end jobs, and they're not getting paid enough, and they're not appreciated enough.
• 23:19
  They're not valued enough as an employee.
• 23:23
  And I'm going to talk about the psychology of that because I think it's really important to understand that.
• 23:29
  And as I mentioned right before the break, the hangover is starting to take place.
• 23:34
  It's called the hangover effect.
• 23:38
  And the honeymoon is pretty much over.
• 23:42
  During COVID, people went out, they way over-leveraged themselves, way overspent.
• 23:48
  And I was talking about the RV market, and that's just one of many markets that did this kind of thing.
• 23:55
  People bought the RV that they felt they deserved.
• 23:58
  We're going to take our family on vacation vacation.
• 24:01
  And I don't care that we're overpaying for an RV.
• 24:04
  I need to get it and I need to get it right now because life is short, life is precious.
• 24:08
  Maybe a lot of these people lost family members.
• 24:11
  It sounds sympathetic to that idea, but it kind of clouds your judgment.
• 24:17
  When you're making emotional decisions, instead of running the math and figuring out, can I actually continue to pay for this?
• 24:26
  Yeah, I heard Dave Ramsey talk about this before, and he said RVs are probably one of the biggest money pits and money traps.
• 24:35
  And I have one, so I know that is absolutely 100% true.
• 24:41
  He said if you're not willing to park that thing in the driveway and just set fire to it and watch it burn, then don't get one because that's essentially what you're doing to your money.
• 24:56
  He's 100% right.
• 24:57
  I mean, it's there's kind of a trade a trade-off.
• 25:02
  And you have to factor in the cost of upkeep, and I mean, it's a lot.
• 25:07
  And mine's a motorhome, so it's even worse.
• 25:11
  It's worse than just than a pool behind camper because there's just so much, so much upkeep.
• 25:20
  But yeah, we love it, and uh it's fun.
• 25:24
  We, you know, we factor in uh to the best of our ability, all the cost of keeping, it's basically like having a second home.
• 25:33
  And it's not making you any money unless you put it to work, which we did for a time.
• 25:38
  We we rented it out for a time and turned it into an asset, and then it just wasn't feasible time-wise to keep up with it.
• 25:46
  But, you know, we made that decision, and uh it's perfect, like we're perfectly fine with it.
• 25:54
  But Ramsey's absolutely right.
• 25:56
  It's not an asset, and a lot of people justified it.
• 25:59
  They justified the RVs, and they're like, well, it's an asset, and uh it's like owning a home where it's gonna appreciate in value.
• 26:08
  No, it's not.
• 26:10
  Trust me, it's not an asset unless you put it to work and you rent it out, and you're making money off of it routinely, it's not an asset.
• 26:24
  It is a major liability.
• 26:26
  So there's this hangover period now where people are realizing, oh my goodness, what have I done?
• 26:37
  And they're kind of stuck.
• 26:38
  But it's again, it's not just the RVs, it's the boats, it's the cars.
• 26:44
  A lot of people justified new cars, and the data shows it, and they're like, I've never owned a new car before, and you know what?
• 26:51
  I kind of deserve it.
• 26:52
  I've been working hard for 10 years, and uh, I deserve, I deserve to get a nice car.
• 26:59
  And we throw in words like reliability.
• 27:02
  Well, I just need something reliable.
• 27:06
  And people fall into that trap, and they justify these big purchases.
• 27:12
  And so what happens psychologically is that people then get this pessimistic view.
• 27:19
  They see the stock market going down.
• 27:22
  And they're like, well, well, holy cow, and they feel pressure, right?
• 27:27
  The value of their car goes down, and it drops like a rock off a cliff.
• 27:35
  And they know that if they sell their car, they're losing a massive amount of money.
• 27:42
  And then the cost of all their other toys starts going down.
• 27:47
  The side by sides, man, are those popular around here?
• 27:50
  The UTVs, the side-by-sides, off-road vehicles.
• 27:57
  People went wild buying.
• 27:59
  I used to see them everywhere where I live.
• 28:01
  And that didn't used to be pre-COVID.
• 28:04
  That was all post-COVID.
• 28:06
  People bought these UTVs, and they're like 15 to 25,000 for something that you can't drive on the road.
• 28:17
  It's literally just a toy.
• 28:18
  It's it's basically an expensive go-kart.
• 28:23
  But people are buying them up like crazy.
• 28:26
  And now I see people, even friends of mine, they're posting them online on Facebook Marketplace, trying to trying to sell them for what they paid for them, and it's not happening.
• 28:36
  Some of these UTVs are sitting on the market for one plus a year, and they're not they're not being sold.
• 28:43
  It's not a seller's market, it's a buyer's market.
• 28:49
  So if you're trying to sell these things and dump inventory, good luck.
• 28:54
  Well, that puts a lot of pressure on because people still have payments on those.
• 28:58
  Those UTVs, it's basically like having a car payment.
• 29:02
  And people are paying a lot of money for four or five years.
• 29:09
  And that's in addition to their car payment.
• 29:11
  That's in addition to their mortgage, that's in addition to their credit card payments and all this other stuff.
• 29:17
  So there's a lot of pressure on the American people right now because we're a consumeristic society.
• 29:23
  There's a ton of pressure.
• 29:26
  And it's making people feel like they're at these dead end jobs.
• 29:30
  All of a sudden, the job that they used to like, they're like, well, I'm stuck at this dead end job.
• 29:36
  My raises aren't keeping up with inflation.
• 29:40
  Well, the question is are the raises not keeping up with inflation or are they not keeping up with your lifestyle changes?
• 29:48
  Because there is a difference.
• 29:50
  And inflation is uh it's hard enough without all the toys and the gadgets and all the all the expensive things that the American people are buying.
• 30:00
  It's tough enough to keep up with inflation.
• 30:03
  Wait till you see what electric is going to do.
• 30:06
  I've been sounding this warning for a long, long time.
• 30:09
  Wait, if you think electric is high now, wait until you see in the next five years what electricity is going to do right here in the United States.
• 30:19
  We better be prepared for it.
• 30:23
  It is happening.
• 30:26
  With all the data centers going in, the high demand for electric.
• 30:33
  The cost is going to skyrocket.
• 30:35
  It already is, but we haven't seen anything yet.
• 30:40
  And I know I have friends who are reporting five five to seven hundred dollar bills a month for electricity.
• 30:49
  We're not at the top.
• 30:51
  I assure you of that.
• 30:52
  We are not at the top.
• 30:54
  So I don't mean to sound like an alarmist, but we have to be real about this.
• 31:00
  And we have to plan accordingly.
• 31:03
  So let me read a little bit more of this Gallup pool because it's uh it's really fascinating.
• 31:08
  Some workers are feeling the strain more acutely than others.
• 31:13
  The life thriving rate of federal workers has decreased 12% points on average since 2022.
• 31:22
  For the first time in the past three years, college educated workers are the most pessimistic about the job market.
• 31:30
  And young workers are more likely than older ones to say it is a bad time to find a good quality job.
• 31:36
  This breaks my heart because it's realistically, it's not true.
• 31:42
  And I think part of the problem is the college educated people are kind of panicking right now.
• 31:48
  They're definitely in panic mode because they owe a pile of money.
• 31:54
  And they need good paying jobs.
• 31:58
  It's not a matter of them being picky and being spoiled brats, it's that they need high-paying jobs to pay back their school debt, their loans, and they know it.
• 32:10
  So a lot of these degrees they're fighting out are pretty useless.
• 32:16
  People want the prestigious colleges.
• 32:18
  If we go to the prestigious university, that'll make us hireable.
• 32:23
  Actually, it doesn't.
• 32:26
  In most jobs, they could care less where you got your degree from.
• 32:31
  They really don't care.
• 32:34
  They're looking at the degree that you need, not the college that you got it from.
• 32:40
  So it's uh it's creating tremendous pressure for people.
• 32:45
  And young people, they're pretty pessimistic about the job force.
• 32:50
  And they're like, well, we just we don't think there are jobs out there.
• 32:53
  They don't exist.
• 32:55
  That is absolutely 100% not true.
• 33:00
  And I just had this conversation with somebody the other day.
• 33:04
  And that person was talking about how important it is for young people, especially to find what they're passionate about and to just start doing it.
• 33:15
  And to turn that into their own business model, and to become an entrepreneur.
• 33:22
  And I agree wholeheartedly, it's what my daughter's doing.
• 33:27
  The idea of her working a nine to five job and being told when you have to show up, there's very little flexibility in schedule.
• 33:37
  You have to work holidays and you have to work weekends and whatever it is, that makes her physically sick.
• 33:46
  And she's like, I I don't want to do that for 14 bucks an hour.
• 33:52
  You know, to be essentially held hostage to their schedule.
• 33:57
  Now, not everybody feels that way.
• 33:59
  Don't mishear me.
• 34:01
  And there is zero wrong with clocking in, punching a time card and working a job.
• 34:09
  Millions and millions of Americans do it, and if you're happy there, that's what matters.
• 34:15
  You know, there's absolutely nothing in the world wrong with working for somebody, but that just doesn't fit my daughter's personality one bit, not at all.
• 34:25
  And so for her, her happiness comes from it's baking.
• 34:30
  And she's working on getting her license right now to get her kitchen licensed to be able to start selling baked goods.
• 34:41
  That it's her passion.
• 34:42
  She loves it.
• 34:45
  And she's working on a very solid business model.
• 34:50
  She's working on marketing.
• 34:51
  She's uh she's just got her logo designed by uh by one of her teachers.
• 34:58
  And it's beautiful, it's wonderful.
• 35:00
  And so she's she's thinking and she's planning, and that's her passion, and she loves it.
• 35:07
  It brings her joy.
• 35:08
  Like she legitimately loves it.
• 35:11
  There are plenty of opportunities.
• 35:13
  This is America.
• 35:14
  There are plenty of opportunities out there.
• 35:16
  And I I know I've brought this up so many times before, but I think it's so important.
• 35:21
  Mike Rowe talks about how there are seven million jobs right now, high paying jobs that are just waiting for people to walk into.
• 35:32
  There's seven million job vacancies that are high paying jobs that artificial intelligence cannot take away from people.
• 35:42
  And it's just that Americans don't want to work those jobs.
• 35:47
  They don't want to be welders and electricians and plumbers, and they feel that those jobs are beneath them.
• 35:53
  But the reality is those are really, really good paying jobs.
• 35:58
  I have a friend who he just honked and waved at me the other day.
• 36:02
  It's why I thought about this.
• 36:05
  But he owns a company, he's young, he's not even 30 years old.
• 36:10
  He owns a multi-million dollar company.
• 36:14
  Because he saw a need, and he was like, I'd I'm gonna go get educated.
• 36:19
  Uh, he went to college, and he, while he was in college, he worked an apprenticeship for a big company, and now he owns his own company, and he is doing so well.
• 36:31
  Every one of his vehicles is brand new.
• 36:34
  All the work trucks, um he's just he's doing really well.
• 36:41
  Yeah, the opportunity is there.
• 36:45
  And by the way, his employees absolutely love them.
• 36:48
  I've talked to several of his employees, and they said we have never been treated so well in all of our life.
• 36:55
  The opportunity is there.
• 36:58
  And so when we come back after the break, we'll talk about how we step into that optimism and embrace that and look for opportunities because I assure you it's there.
• 37:08
  America's doing quite well.
• 37:11
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcasts heard on Talk Radio.
• 37:16
  You can hear them on your favorite podcast app.
• 37:18
  Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, share it, and again, when we come back, we'll talk about how we step into and embrace this positivity and how we better ourselves as Americans.
• 37:31
  Check out the store at America Outloud.news, use the code out loud for 20% off.
• 37:37
  We'll be right back.
• 37:38
  I cannot tell a lie.
• 37:39
  My sinuses are blocked.
• 37:41
  George, you crossed the Delaware.
• 37:44
  You can cross congestion.
• 37:46
  Here, try clear.
• 37:49
  Freedom smells like victory.
• 37:52
  Come celebrate.
• 37:53
  250 years of American independence.
• 37:57
  But the America out loud.
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• 38:53
  US workers say that they are not thriving.
• 38:57
  It's the highest levels in the past several years.
• 39:00
  And there are a lot of things going on right now.
• 39:04
  The thriving rate is at an all-time low.
• 39:08
  Well, at least within the last few years.
• 39:12
  The struggling rate is increasing.
• 39:16
  They say that they're struggling.
• 39:20
  They're detached.
• 39:23
  And they're actively looking for other jobs.
• 39:27
  And uh there's a lot of growing pessimism in the United States of America.
• 39:34
  So I want to break these numbers down in this in this recent Gallup poll and talk about how we overcome this because there's nothing worse than somebody being stuck at a job where they feel like it's a dead-end job and they're unsatisfied.
• 39:47
  We've all been there.
• 39:48
  I empathize with people.
• 39:50
  I understand what that feels like, but I do want to talk about this idea that there are no jobs out there.
• 39:56
  And that's the perception right now.
• 39:58
  People feel like there are no other jobs.
• 40:00
  Out there, and that there's just not opportunity, and that simply couldn't be further from the truth.
• 40:06
  There's plenty of opportunity out there.
• 40:09
  So this does change by number, by age, and that's really important.
• 40:16
  It's the college educated and younger workers who are the most pessimistic.
• 40:22
  So among people with college degrees are above just 19% of college educated workers said now is a good time to find a quality job compared with 35% of workers without a college degree.
• 40:39
  So that's a 16-point gap.
• 40:41
  Now, why is that the case?
• 40:43
  Why do you think that's the case?
• 40:44
  Well, I believe that a lot of the people who fell into this college trap that they were told you'll never find a job unless you're college educated.
• 40:53
  They find out pretty quickly that that's just not true.
• 40:57
  So people without a college degree have an easier time finding jobs because they're more likely to do like the uh blue collar kind of jobs.
• 41:10
  The jobs where the market is absolutely wide open.
• 41:13
  There's endless opportunity.
• 41:15
  I know people, plenty of people, plenty of people, who have no college degree whatsoever, and they're making double my income.
• 41:27
  I have nine years of college and graduate level work.
• 41:34
  Nine years.
• 41:36
  And there are people who've never spent one day in college, plus they have nine years on me, ten years really, because I took a year off in between.
• 41:45
  So they have a full decade on me.
• 41:51
  Where they were able to work, they were making really, really good money.
• 41:54
  They were always making more money than I made.
• 41:58
  And they're doing quite well for themselves.
• 42:00
  I'm not jealous.
• 42:02
  I don't look at that and look down on people and and you know, curse my college degree, and like that's just not me.
• 42:12
  I want people to do well.
• 42:13
  I want people to succeed.
• 42:16
  I want people to do what makes them happy.
• 42:19
  And if that's going to college for nine, 10 years and working a job for a mediocre income.
• 42:26
  If you love your job, who cares?
• 42:30
  And I'm really inspired by Gary Vee.
• 42:33
  He talks about this a lot, where it really doesn't matter.
• 42:37
  And people buy into these lies that all these things are going to make you happy.
• 42:43
  More money is going to make you happy.
• 42:46
  That's not true.
• 42:47
  My wife and I just had this conversation last night.
• 42:51
  And she said, you know, we we have zero debt.
• 42:56
  None.
• 42:56
  Absolutely zero debt.
• 42:59
  And she said, whenever we paid our debt off, we thought that there was going to be like this light switch moment where life was just going to be so much happier, and we were going to have a super high satisfaction level.
• 43:13
  And she's like, nothing really changed, did it?
• 43:15
  And I'm like, no, it really didn't.
• 43:18
  And we're generally very happy.
• 43:20
  We've always been.
• 43:24
  And money doesn't bring us happiness.
• 43:27
  And I think that's the difference.
• 43:28
  We've always been happy because we've cherished family.
• 43:32
  And we've always been positive about our jobs for the most part.
• 43:36
  Yeah, there are moments, certainly, where things don't go well with your job, and your view tends to be pretty negative.
• 43:44
  But for the most part, we're satisfied.
• 43:47
  You know, it's not one of those, it's not one of those situations where we're like, we live to work.
• 43:54
  You know, we're both, we like what we do.
• 43:57
  We're satisfied.
• 44:00
  We're okay with the income.
• 44:03
  Yeah, it's there are lots of jobs that I I literally could double my income by walking away.
• 44:10
  And uh say if I I did something in the uh in the trucking industry, the transport uh industry, I'd be making double the income that I make now.
• 44:19
  I know that.
• 44:20
  But I don't want to work that job.
• 44:22
  I've been there done that.
• 44:25
  I like I like being a minister.
• 44:28
  I like leading a church.
• 44:30
  It's it's enjoyable.
• 44:32
  My quality of life is very, very good.
• 44:36
  We have a good work life balance.
• 44:39
  Uh you know, home life.
• 44:43
  We have that good balance between work and enjoyment, our home life.
• 44:48
  And so my point is it doesn't really matter what you do.
• 44:52
  It doesn't matter if you're punching a time card and work in a factory.
• 44:55
  There's some people who absolutely love it.
• 44:58
  And they do quite well at it.
• 45:00
  And we need those workers.
• 45:03
  There are other people who are like my daughter.
• 45:06
  They just can't, the idea of punching a time card anywhere just doesn't fit their personality.
• 45:12
  That's okay.
• 45:14
  There are other people who they just they're not interested in college.
• 45:19
  They want to learn a trade and they want to do well.
• 45:22
  That's perfectly acceptable.
• 45:24
  You know, I think of my friend who uh owns a multi-million dollar business.
• 45:28
  He's doing very, very well for himself.
• 45:31
  And I think it's fantastic.
• 45:33
  I think it's great.
• 45:35
  So the point is that there's plenty of opportunity out there.
• 45:39
  And I don't like when people fall into this trap, this negative trap.
• 45:43
  And a lot of that's driven, unfortunately, by the media.
• 45:47
  And it's driven by politicians telling us how bad Trump's economy is, and look at gas prices right now.
• 45:55
  There was just a question the other day.
• 45:56
  I thought this was really fascinating.
• 45:59
  There was a question where a reporter asked Trump, well, what do your advisors say is going to happen to oil prices if the war ends in Iraq or uh Iran, I mean.
• 46:13
  You know, President Trump, he I mean, he quipped back pretty quickly.
• 46:18
  He's like, I don't need advisors to tell me.
• 46:21
  You know, basically saying that's a stupid question.
• 46:24
  I don't need advisors to tell me.
• 46:26
  Soon as the Strait of Hormos is open, and soon as the war ends, and we get a peace agreement.
• 46:32
  He said, fuel prices are gonna plummet.
• 46:37
  They're gonna go back down.
• 46:38
  Optimism is gonna hit the market.
• 46:41
  Uh, the cost of fuel is gonna go down.
• 46:44
  I don't need advisors to tell me that.
• 46:47
  And you know, he's right.
• 46:48
  He's absolutely right.
• 46:51
  So people point to the temporary fuel prices, and they're like, oh my goodness, we're absolutely in trouble.
• 46:58
  America, it's it's back to the 1970s.
• 47:01
  We're gonna have to start rationing fuel, and fuel prices are so high, and that's gonna collapse the economy.
• 47:07
  The reality is it's it's a temporary spike right now.
• 47:12
  It's because of the war that the fuel prices went up.
• 47:17
  The cost of oil went up.
• 47:21
  So we can't look at these little snapshots and listen to the media and be like, oh, well, we're we're all doomed.
• 47:27
  Because when that happens, guess what happens?
• 47:30
  This Gallup poll is a case in point.
• 47:32
  Optimism takes it just takes a nosedive.
• 47:36
  People become pessimistic.
• 47:40
  Worker thriving declines as job market pessimism grows.
• 47:44
  That's the title of this Gallup pool.
• 47:50
  So what's pushing them, people who are currently employed, what's pushing them to look for other jobs?
• 47:56
  Well, at the top of the list, reasons that people, top reasons that people are dissatisfied, dissatisfied with their job is payer benefits.
• 48:07
  53%.
• 48:11
  Opportunities to grow or advance, 28%.
• 48:16
  Leadership, you know, bad leadership or management, 27%.
• 48:21
  All right, top reasons for trying to find something better.
• 48:27
  The reason people are trying to find something better.
• 48:30
  Listen to this.
• 48:34
  They're looking for better payer benefits.
• 48:38
  And what that tells me is that either people are radically underpaid, which is a possibility, or people have a tremendous amount of debt, and they're feeling a lot of pressure to earn more money.
• 48:55
  I think that that's probably the bigger reason.
• 48:59
  Based on the numbers, based on the statistics, people are way over leveraged with their debt here in America.
• 49:07
  So they're desperate to find a better job with better pay, better benefits, because they they feel like they can't survive without the better pay.
• 49:18
  And that's all the more reason why we need to plan for things.
• 49:21
  And I think I mentioned this the other day, but my my father-in-law, he asked me the other day, did you factor in the current gas prices for for your vacation?
• 49:31
  We're gonna be driving, I don't know, 2500 to 3,000 miles, and uh, we're taking our gas guzzler van.
• 49:39
  You know, we get 21 miles to the gallon.
• 49:42
  It's not great.
• 49:44
  And he said, Did you factor in $5 a gallon gas?
• 49:50
  And I said, No, because we planned the vacation a long time ago.
• 49:56
  Fuel prices had come down dramatically.
• 50:00
  We didn't know there was going to be a war in Iran.
• 50:04
  We didn't know that gas was going to be five bucks a gallon.
• 50:06
  He's like, well, how's that going to affect your vacation?
• 50:10
  I said, not at all.
• 50:13
  It has absolutely zero effect because we over budget for everything that we do.
• 50:20
  We budgeted for it.
• 50:21
  And so it is what it is.
• 50:23
  We can't control the gas prices.
• 50:27
  But if you think it's going to put us into debt because gas prices are all of a sudden five bucks as opposed to three bucks, it's not.
• 50:35
  It's not going to have any effect on us.
• 50:38
  Except that it's going to be a little bit annoying.
• 50:41
  Nobody likes paying five bucks a gallon.
• 50:46
  But it doesn't affect it because we plan for it.
• 50:49
  So this is how we overcome this.
• 50:52
  We've got to plan for life.
• 50:58
  I mean, we we've got and we've got to look for opportunity.
• 51:01
  We've got to look for opportunity to invest.
• 51:04
  We've got to look for opportunity to grow our wealth.
• 51:07
  We've got to look for opportunity to eliminate debt and to take advantage of discounts.
• 51:14
  And so many people want, they want the shiny thing right now.
• 51:18
  They want the new car, the new job, the new RV, the new boat, the new house.
• 51:24
  They want it all.
• 51:26
  And the reality is we can't do it all.
• 51:31
  And sometimes you have to live within your means or below your means, ideally.
• 51:38
  Live below your means for a while, and then you can buy whatever you want.
• 51:45
  And again, I, you know, I talk about Dave Ramsey a lot.
• 51:49
  And there's a lot of stuff that I disagree with him on.
• 51:53
  But that principle is right.
• 51:56
  You know, when you're younger, find a decent job.
• 52:00
  Doesn't have to, you don't have to break records, but find a decent job and live below your means by the trailer.
• 52:07
  I have a good friend who did that.
• 52:09
  He bought a trailer, literally, and lived in a trailer for I don't know, um, eight years or so.
• 52:17
  When he first got married, he bought a trailer off a friend, paid cash for it.
• 52:22
  Bought a piece of property, put the trailer on that property.
• 52:28
  He lived in that trailer, he he saved, he invested.
• 52:32
  And then he was like, okay, I think it's time to build a house.
• 52:37
  Picked out the, I mean, the exact plan, the blueprints that he wanted, built a house, had that thing paid off in a very short time.
• 52:46
  It was a few years.
• 52:48
  Has a fully paid for house.
• 52:50
  He has no debt.
• 52:52
  And uh he's doing quite well for himself.
• 52:57
  But he he sacrificed at a younger age.
• 53:00
  He sacrificed, and it wasn't that big of a sacrifice, to be honest.
• 53:04
  It was a decent trailer.
• 53:05
  There was nothing wrong with it.
• 53:08
  But that wasn't his dream home.
• 53:12
  But he was living on his dream property.
• 53:16
  And so he did things in a really, really smart way.
• 53:19
  And he and I, I we talk about finances a lot, and I mean, we're we're just in agreement on so many different things.
• 53:28
  And it's pretty cool to see.
• 53:30
  It's pretty cool to share ideas with people, but you find like-minded people, and you work together and you get ideas off of people who are doing things right.
• 53:38
  I kind of wish that I had done things the way that he did them.
• 53:43
  But, you know, there are probably things that I've done that he wishes he would have done.
• 53:48
  So it's whatever.
• 53:49
  You know, the sky's the limit.
• 53:51
  And this is my point.
• 53:53
  There's no need for this dramatic pessimism.
• 54:00
  By dramatic, I don't mean like people are being dramatic.
• 54:03
  I mean dramatic as in the numbers are plummeting and they're plummeting fast.
• 54:10
  There's no need for this amount of pessimism because there's plenty of opportunity out there.
• 54:15
  Now I know it's really hard for people to transition.
• 54:20
  If you're college educated and you got a degree in finance or whatever it was, you have a business degree, or you have a degree in theater or whatever it is.
• 54:32
  And now all of a sudden you're like, wait, I'm 45 years old.
• 54:37
  And how do I switch to become a welder?
• 54:43
  How do I, how do I learn a trade at 45 years old and become a plumber?
• 54:50
  Won't I be betraying my degree and my parents and my family, and I'm bringing dishonor on my family?
• 54:57
  The answer is a resounding no.
• 55:01
  You're not bringing dishonor on anybody.
• 55:03
  The only way you're bringing dishonor is if you're stuck at a job that you absolutely hate, and you're miserable, and you're just kind of biding your time here on planet Earth.
• 55:13
  Life is way too short to live that way.
• 55:17
  There are plenty of opportunities out there, and we just have to step out in faith and do it.
• 55:24
  And I think that your family is gonna appreciate you a whole lot more if you come home happy.
• 55:31
  And you get a better paycheck.
• 55:36
  You're working a good job, an honest job, you get to come home, kick off your boots, and relax.
• 55:44
  Go to your kids' ball games.
• 55:46
  Be present, be mentally present and emotionally present for your spouse.
• 55:53
  That's what matters in life.
• 55:56
  And folks, trust me on this.
• 55:59
  The opportunity is out there.
• 56:01
  The opportunity to thrive and to do well, it's out there.
• 56:07
  And there are millions of jobs that are that are available right now that are really, really, really good jobs.
• 56:16
  And that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:18
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:26
  There's a hidden lightness that shines aside of all of us.
• 56:28
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 56:36
  Join me in being a light.