Ask HN: Are you negatively affected by the recent economic stagnation?

I have been out of work for roughly two years, though I should note that, for religious reasons, I have limited my search to positions involving Rust. Toward the end of last year, however, it seemed that the situation was beginning to improve: new job postings appeared that looked credible, and by the start of this year I had two interviews (both initiated by companies themselves). In one case, I advanced to the later stages of the process and was close to receiving an offer. So I was hopeful things will turn around.

I think, now, given what's happening in the Gulf, you can firmly assume that the recovery will fully stop; if not worse. It's safer to assume that this will not resolve any time soon. I am from near the region, and I know a few friends who had to go back to the country because their jobs/workplace was affected. So that's one job market that's now bust.

Interest rates will remain high, if not go higher. Life will get significantly more expensive with $100+ oil. This will be a global pain, unfortunately.

I am affected my a political choice, which is law which did happen in 2015/2016 in my country (EU member state).

This have been disastrous: the web sites of my administration have been replaced by web apps, of course requiring one of the web engines from the WHATNG cartel.

I'm affected by inflation. Salary increases have not kept up. Not at all.

Fewer people migrate to Germany, and those who already migrated struggle to find jobs. My website helps people settle in Germany. Many of my colleagues are relocation consultants. They feel the difference. I spoke with someone at the city's talent and business promotion board and they see it too.

I have much more unemployed friends and they stay unemployed longer. Employers have started requiring fluent German.

For me, AI is a bigger threat. It wrecked my prospects as a developer, which was always my fallback if the site failed. Then LLMs and AI overviews started wrecking my traffic. It made me divert a lot of attention away from making the website helpful, towards making it resilient.

My salary hasn't kept up with inflation, but I had some really good years before that, while keeping my expenses low, so I've been ok. I've always been pretty obsessed with keeping my fixed costs low, which helps in times like these.

I have been questioning if I need to adjust some things based on what seem to be higher monthly costs, or if I've just had a few months of one-off expenses that make it feel that way. It would probably take me a few hours to sit down and figure this out and I haven't had the chance.

I am presently employed, but it has been difficult to find a new job. The market is worse than the dot-com crash, great financial crisis, or 2020.

Still employed, but I’m afraid layoff may come at any moment, and then I may never find a similar job, ever. If I get laid off I probably need to start a training and go into a trade ASAP.