Other than the early months of the pandemic, we haven’t seen anything like this for a long time. Mass layoffs are happening all over the nation, major retailers and large restaurant chains are deeply struggling, and the cost of living is out of control. I am going to share more numbers with you today that confirm that a very painful economic downturn is now upon us. For example, a survey that was recently conducted by outplacement firm Careerminds discovered that 78 percent of HR leaders in the U.S. admit that their companies have been through multiple rounds of layoffs. In fact, 40 percent of HR leaders in the U.S. say that layoffs are now occurring quarterly at their companies…
- Financial difficulties pushed 78% of U.S.-based HR leaders to conduct multiple rounds of layoffs within the past year, according to the results of a July survey by outplacement firm Careerminds, with many stating they oversaw “serial layoffs” that occurred in rapid succession.
- The survey of 600 respondents found that 75% of reported layoffs occurred within less than six months of one another, and 40% of HR leaders said layoffs happened quarterly at their organizations. Financial instability constituted the biggest driver of job cuts, followed by changing business priorities, market disruption and post-pandemic overstaffing.
If 40 percent of your large employers are conducting layoffs every quarter, you have a major economic crisis in your county.
There is no possible way to spin that number to make it look good.
We have been witnessing such a dramatic economic shift in recent months.
According to the latest numbers that were released by Target, store traffic has been declining nearly every single week since late January…
Target’s annual sales have been roughly stagnant for the past four years, and its inconsistent performance has tested the loyalty of shoppers and shaken the confidence of Wall Street. Store traffic at the big-box retailer has fallen almost every week since late January, according to Placer.ai, an analytics firm that uses anonymized data from mobile devices to estimate overall visits to locations. And shares of the company have tumbled about 60% from their all-time high in late 2021.
The reason why Americans are doing less shopping is because they have less discretionary income to spend.
And prices just keep going up and up.
At Walmart, many products have had their prices hiked by more than 20 percent this year…
At Walmart, a “Jurassic World” T. Rex figure had spiked by nearly 38% to $55 on May 21 from just a month ago. A heating pad costs 25% more to $24.96 this year, according to employees who posted photos of the price hikes on social media. A fishing reel at Walmart jumped to $83.26 from $57.37.
Joe — a regular Walmart shopper who also asked that his last name not be used — told The Post last week he was eyeing new air conditioners at the store in Cortlandt Manor, NY. Last year, he said, a small unit that cools off a 300-square-foot room cost $115 — up from $100 a year earlier.
Most U.S. consumers cannot afford these prices.
Unfortunately, now we are being warned that prices on many things will soon go quite a bit higher.
On Monday, a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum will start being applied to 407 categories of goods…
Butter knives, baby strollers, spray deodorants and fire extinguishers, considered “derivative” steel and aluminum products, were previously excluded from the 50% tariff, though they were still subject to the higher country-specific tariffs Trump enacted over the last several months.
However, on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection and a division of the US Commerce Department published notices informing US importers that 407 categories of goods containing steel and aluminum would immediately be subject to the 50% tariffs at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday. The non-steel and non-aluminum components of the products face other applicable levies.
Thousands upon thousands of products that contain steel and aluminum that Americans purchase on a regular basis are about to get a lot more expensive.
Are you ready for that?
Meanwhile, beef prices continue to soar into uncharted territory…
Walter Avalos, a D.C.-based seller for a large U.S. deli producer, typically got instructions once a year to hike red meat prices. Now, it’s every week.
“We had to put at the bottom of our inventories that prices can change at any moment,” said Avalos, 34. “It never used to be like that.”
Red meat prices are skyrocketing in the United States, the world’s largest consumer and producer of beef. Beef and veal prices surged 11.3 percent in July over the year, according to the most recent consumer price index report.
When I read that line about prices rising “every week”, that reminded me of what the history books say about the Weimar Republic.
Sadly, there will continue to be pressure on beef prices for the foreseeable future because the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to the lowest level since 1951…
One of the drivers of spiking beef costs is a drought that has ravaged U.S. cattle in key meat-producing states since 2022, causing cattle volumes to collapse this year to their lowest recorded levels since 1951.
In 1951, 154.8 million people lived in the United States.
Today, 340 million people live in the United States.
So we have the same amount of cattle that we did in 1951, but we are trying to feed more than twice as many people.
Just think about that for a while.
Switching to vegetables won’t bring relief either, because the price of vegetables in the U.S. went up by 38 percent from June to July…
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 38% surge in the wholesale price of vegetables in July.
This is the biggest price spike for any product category month-to-month.
“It’s insane. That’s why I’m growing a lot more myself this year,” said Dana Roads, who is visiting from Utah.
If you haven’t seen this figure before, I know that it may be difficult to believe that vegetable prices went up by 38 percent in one month.
But it is true. This figure comes directly from the government, and if you want to learn more please see my previous article entitled “Are You Drowning Too?: Vegetables Are Up 38.9%, Coffee is Up 25%, And Electricity Prices Are Rising Twice As Fast As Inflation”.
And the really bad news is that vegetable prices are expected to continue to go up because there aren’t enough agricultural workers in the fields…
A shortage of workers could lead to lost crops down the line.
“A lot of the product is being lost because there’s nobody to work. So it’s the product that has been picked has been raised maybe 35 to 40%,” said Jaime Desales.
Unless you are independently wealthy, you are feeling the pain of higher prices.
When I was younger, I thought that anyone making $100,000 a year had it made.
But today a $100,000 income won’t even cover the average cost of living in 13 U.S. states…
In 13 states, a $100,000 salary isn’t even enough to cover average annual cost of living. On the other end of the spectrum, there are 15 states where making that amount would cover 120% or more of those expenditures.
In life, consequences are not always immediate.
When our leaders started borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have during the pandemic, a lot of people were convinced that it must be okay because we did not immediately experience severe consequences.
But now we are starting to experience severe consequences, and things will get a whole lot more painful if we stay on the path that we are currently on.
I am definitely one that likes to hope for the best, but I would strongly urge you to prepare for the worst because it appears that is exactly where things are heading in the months ahead.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post 78 Percent Of HR Leaders In The U.S. Say That Their Companies Are Conducting “Serial Layoffs”, And We Are Being Warned That A Major Cost Of Living Shock Is Coming appeared first on The Economic Collapse.