More jobs with more headaches
Whatever one may say, despite the dire and extreme negative predictions, America seems to be on an economic roll. President Donald Trump’s radical, wayward, chaotic, confusing, aggressive, tantrum-like, child-like, and up-in-the-sky policies seem to work, at least for the present. The January 2026 jobs report an addition of 1,30,000 jobs, nearly double the estimates, and unemployment down by 0.1 per cent. However, despite the good news, experts continue to question the figures. One is unable to figure whether this is due to deep-rooted resentment against Trump, and his policies, they are unsure about the truth behind the facts, or they cannot digest the president’s success.
However, to be fair to the critics, there are a few legitimate reasons to question the January report. First, most of the jobs last month came from one sector, healthcare. According to some experts, this may indicate that this is neither sustainable nor broad-based. One sector skews the overall figures, which can be a temporary trend. The fact remains that Trump came back to power, essentially because voters believe that he can make America great again, not in services and tech, where it is already on a high, but in manufacturing. Adding jobs in healthcare is good, but not what the president promises.
Second, in the recent past, official data and figures have lost credibility, even relevance, as per some analysts. In the case of new jobs, figures are routinely and regularly revised downwards. For example, the labour bureau drastically reduced its earlier data for 2024-25, from an estimated 5,84,000 to a mere and more realistic 1,81,000. This is a decline of more than two-thirds. It is substantial, and it seems unbelievable that the numbers can be so wonky and unstable. It will be neither surprising nor shocking if the January 2026 numbers are scaled down similarly. There is no sanctity to the numbers.
“I would not exhale with today’s (January’s) job numbers. The job market remains fragile, and highly vulnerable,” Moody’s chief economist responded on X in a social post. He added if one discounts healthcare, the employment growth is weak. “Yes, payroll employment increased by 1,30,000, but given the big downward revisions in history, there has been no job growth since last April (Liberation Day). Moreover, nearly all the job growth in January, and over the past year, has been in healthcare…. And this is before artificial intelligence has meaningfully impacted productivity growth, and thus jobs….”
Other economists point to technical and statistical anomalies. For example, one of them calls the job figures “implausible” because of a sharp jump in modeled job creation within healthcare businesses opening and closing. In simple words, the official figures use statistical assumptions that tend to overstate the hiring momentum. Thus, they argue that the market can tighten over the next few months. It is too early to celebrate and rejoice over the policies and, as a media report contends, “it may be premature to declare (January) a turning point.” One needs to still wait-and-watch how the economy performs.
Such uncertainty lurks beneath the figures and data, and a new story seems to unfold at the ground level. Americans, feel experts, are grappling with multiple job-related issues such as longer work-weeks, shrinking disposable incomes, and a growing number that are engaged in two full-time jobs (not just side hustles to earn a bit more). According to one data, nearly half-a-million Americans hold two jobs, which is the “second-highest figure on record, trailing on December 2025’s peak of 4,88,000. More strikingly, the number has doubled since 2020, and now exceeds the dot-com era high of 4,18,000 recorded in July 2000. This is not a statistical blip. It is a shift.” It is gaining momentum.
To put this in perspective, the two-job impetus may have started during the pandemic, as people lost jobs, and those employed saw huge slashes in salaries, increments, and bonuses. Households with lost jobs forced a member to work harder. The same was true for members in homes where the overall incoming salaries dropped by 20-50 per cent. In 1999-2000 during the dot-com boom, people wanted to earn more, and multiply wealth. Hence, they were willing to do two jobs, or do a fulltime job, and work on their start-ups to seek valuations.
Now, consider the broader two-job picture. Mounting pressures push households to seek multiple paychecks, as a single one is not enough to pay for rents, healthcare, utilities, groceries, and education loans for children. By 2024, Americans hiked their shifts, second roles, and crossed the 60-hour work-week threshold. Now, it is time to do two jobs. “What makes the
trend more sobering is that it unfolded even as unemployment ticked higher in certain months. Employment exists, but for many it is insufficient. The old benchmark of stability, a single full time job, is quietly eroding,” states a recent media report.
According to surveys, the impact on the younger generation is higher. ‘Income stacking,’ or a combination of a full-time job with freelance work, contractual job, digital gigs, and part-time shifts, is common among Gen Z. While in an earlier generation, this may indicate ambition, greed, or the desire to join the corporate race, Gen Z is worried about insulation from economic and income shocks. The “younger employees (today) are building parallel income tracks by default. Stability now requires diversification,” states a report. What was optional and voluntary earlier is mandatory these days.
Ironic as it may seem, having two full-time and well-paying jobs may seem like economic security. But it may be the opposite if the trigger for it is to somehow maintain a lifestyle, and pay the existing and crucial monthly bills. In such a scenario, the fear of losing one of the jobs, or losing a part of the salary, which is highly possible as workers get sacked across sectors within no time, is high. So are the stress levels, which force the younger cohort to work harder, and longer. It may be a non-stoppable cycle; walk faster to stay where one is.
As a media report states, the new trend of working more “represents a shift in economic survival mechanism, one that is seeing productivity increase, hours increase, and the recovery experience as uneven.” Experts agree that one is not sure if these are temporary trends due to instability, disruptions, shocks, and tensions, or mark a genuine shift in the corporate work culture in America. But the work calendar is crowded, with little time for family, comfort, or pleasure. Sadly, AI, which makes us more productive, and lose jobs, may aid this shift.
