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Cornering The Job Market: Weird Work Trends You Won’t Believe Are Happening

• Pete Newsome

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The workplace keeps getting weirder. From quiet cracking to employees refusing to leave after being fired, plus troubling new data on Gen Z men in the job market, today’s trends reveal a workplace in flux.

In this video, Pete Newsome breaks down the latest headlines you need to know:
1. Quiet Cracking → A "new" workplace trend reshaping employee engagement
2. Imposter Syndrome → How workers at every level can overcome it
3. A “Meh” Job Market → More risks for the U.S. economy
4. Bad News for Gen Z Men → Higher jobless rates and college degrees not paying off

👉 Whether you’re an employer, job seeker, or simply trying to make sense of today’s career landscape, this is your go-to breakdown of all the latest workplace trends.

News Articles: 
1. Quiet Cracking: https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/quiet-cracking-is-a-new-workplace-phenomenon/496305
2. Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/25/work-advice-overcoming-imposter-syndrome/
3. Risk for the US Job Market: https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/rising-risk-for-the-u-s-economy-a-job-market-that-is-just-meh-ca37eac1
4. High Unemployment Rate for Gen Z Men: https://fortune.com/2025/08/25/gen-zers-neets-jobless-men-unemployed-higher-rates-women-healthcare-coding-ai/

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👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
Blog Articles: https://www.4cornerresources.com/blog/

Pete Newsome:

This is Quartering the Job Market for August 26. I'm Pete with Four Corner Resources and here are all the work-related headlines you need to know for today, including yet another new work-related phrase Employers are reducing staff in the second half of the year. And what happens when you get fired but refuse to leave? We'll get to all that. But first, fortune is reporting that millions of Gen Zers are jobless and that unemployment is mainly affecting young men. Now, we know that a lot of Gen Zers are jobless, but it's really disturbing to see that young men are being affected significantly more than women. And what bothers me about it is I don't know why. I haven't seen anything pointing to the cause of this. I've seen the data reported in a few different ways. I mean, most recently, it's been reported that men aged 20 to 24 have a 9.1% unemployment rate in 2025, which is 2% higher than Gen Z women, but I don't know the cause of it. If you do, let me know. I'd love to hear. I haven't seen anything reported as to why. The guys just need to pick up the pace out there. Is there some job market specifically that's benefiting young professional women right now? I just don't know, but it's disturbing anytime we see a gap and I just really, really want to know why. Other news for young men right now is that college doesn't seem to be paying off for them at all. Gen Z men with degrees now share the same unemployment as those that don't have degrees, and this really brings into question the value of higher education, at least for me, in terms of degrees that don't lead to a specific job. Right, we have, of course, a great need for higher education, for specialty roles, for roles that require advanced degrees, but they're just generic bachelor's degrees, humanities, liberal arts, and listen, I'm a fan of higher education, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to tie those degrees to job opportunities. Now you could argue and you'd be right, based on the data, that career earnings over time are significantly higher on average for those that have degrees, but I'm not so sure that's going to continue going forward, at least at the bachelor's degree level. So it'll take years until we know that for sure. But what we know definitively right now is that Young men coming out of college with degrees are not in any better shape than those that don't have degrees. So chew on that Again. Let me know if you have any thoughts as to why you think that is Moving on to the Wall Street Journal article titled Stagnant job market is a rising risk for the US economy.

Pete Newsome:

Everything's a risk for the US economy these days, I guess, right, tariffs are a risk. The election was a risk. Economy. These days, I guess, right, tariffs are a risk. The election was a risk. Now we're already looking forward to the midterm elections and thinking those are going to be a risk for the US economy. I guess there's just trouble everywhere.

Pete Newsome:

But what I found disturbing about this particular article is a conference board report that's referenced I think it came out last week that shows that one in five US employers that were recently surveyed are planning to slow hiring in the second half of 2025. Now it doesn't say they're going to have layoffs, but it says they're going to slow hiring. That's a big number. A quote from this article I found interesting was from John Faust, who's with the Center for Financial Economics, and he said when you're close to the edge of job losses, it doesn't take much to get you into a situation where things can spiral downward. That's kind of how it feels right now. I mean, in one way it seemed like we've been on the edge of growth and rising and really good numbers in the job market for, I would say, the last couple of years I mean certainly leading up to the election many of us thought that didn't happen the way that we expected, and then, of course, tariffs following soon after certainly have been cause for a big slowdown in hiring. But it does seem we're kind of on a precipice right now of things going in the wrong direction. I'll keep reporting on it, I'll keep paying attention, so you don't have to. So keep checking back, and I'll share the latest data as it's available.

Pete Newsome:

Now. I promised you guys a new phrase here. It is quiet cracking. I don't think we needed a new phrase, but entrepreneurcom says that quiet cracking is a silent trend that's undermining your team without you knowing. I guess this was recently coined by Talent LMS. It was a blog article that they wrote where they said quiet cracking is a persistent feeling of workplace unhappiness that leads to disengagement, poor performance and an increased desire to quit. I thought that was quiet quitting. Now I guess it's clickbait and I'm guilty of clicking. So shame on me for buying into this. But what is going on with these new terms? We've recently had job hugging. I reported on that last week.

Pete Newsome:

Ai theater, cold play gate although that one's fun, but we don't need another phrase to say that employees are often dissatisfied. This article said that one in five say it's frequent or constant to be essentially disenchanted with their job or have a desire to quit. I think that's been the case for all of history. I mean it has called work for a reason. There's a reason you get paid to show up every day. It's not because it's your first choice or what you love to do necessarily and what you love to do necessarily. And listen, make no mistake, if you are early in your career, I am the biggest advocate of finding something that makes you happy. Find something you enjoy doing, match something you like with something you're good at, with something you can be paid for. I mean that is a path to success, no question about it. But at the end of the day, there's still a reason you have to get paid to show up. Work isn't inherently fun. It's not sitting on the beach, it's not climbing a mountain things you'd go and do on the weekend. So no surprise that employees aren't ecstatic all day, every day, to show up for work, but quiet cracking. Apparently this was from what they claimed to be a new poll. I did a little digging. The poll was from 2022, not so new. So enough with the new terms. Okay, we don't need another one. We can just stick with quiet quitting and go with that. But there you go. Now you'll know if someone says quiet cracking. You'll have a better understanding of what it means.

Pete Newsome:

And then I thought this was an interesting article in the Washington Post. It was by Carla Miller and it's titled Oops, I Stumbled Across a Higher Paying Job, do I Dare? And now, supposedly, a reader wrote in asking for advice, feeling guilty about quitting a job and feeling like she might be burning a bridge. Now that's silly, and I do credit the columnist for pointing out that it is silly. She actually said curiosity and ambition are not betrayals of gratitude or loyalty. She's absolutely right.

Pete Newsome:

But I would go even further to say that if you're an employee, you don't owe your employer anything beyond the job they've hired you to do. Do your best while you're there, but as far as tomorrow or any day that comes after, there's no reason to be loyal and you shouldn't think of it that way. I don't think it's disloyal. I just don't think it's in nature of a relationship when you start, or that specific relationship. When you start a job, you don't agree to stay until death, do you part? You don't take marriage vows when you go to work somewhere, I think employees get confused at times and look for more what they call loyalty from their employers, but I don't think that's part of the deal either.

Pete Newsome:

Yes, you should treat each side, should be treated with respect, and that is always should be a given. It's not, but it should be. But as far as a promise of tomorrow, either to have a job or to have an employee remain in place, that's just silly to me and it always has been. I just don't buy into that whatsoever and I think those who seek that kind of long-term commitment are probably not doing enough to prepare for the alternatives, because businesses change their mind about their situation all the time. The economy, as we just talked about, outside factors can change the state of things for the business, and individuals change what's going on in their personal life all the time, either by their own choosing or outside forces. It's just the nature of that particular relationship and while it's wonderful if you can stay somewhere long term, it doesn't have to be a given and as an employee, you should always be looking out for something better for yourself. Right, and I think the employer's job is to provide a situation where the their employees don't find anything better. But but again, it's a day to day thing. It's not meant to be locked in for life. So that's my take on it.

Pete Newsome:

It was an interesting article again in the Washington Post earlier today. And then finally, lisa Cook. I'm sure everyone's heard of this by now. She's a Federal Reserve governor who has been accused of some serious stuff. She's being accused of fraud. She hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but President Trump fired her and she's refusing to leave. She says he can't do that. Even her lawyer is saying President Trump has no authority to remove Lisa Cook. He says it's just not possible. So that is a weird situation. Imagine that in the corporate world. I mean everything when it comes to government is just wacky to me the way things work these days. It's never just sane and normal, it seems. But here we have someone who's been fired, sort of, but is refusing to leave. We will see how this plays out over time.

Pete Newsome:

And, as always, to close with your fun fact, for today, in the 18th century, a person's profession could often be identified by their last name. Surnames like Smith metal worker, baker a baker, carter a transporter of goods and Cooper, a barrel maker, were a direct reflection of a person's trade. Now, jobs were a lot simpler back then. Imagine if we tried to do that today. I'm a professional recruiter. At least that's what my business has been for many, many years now.

Pete Newsome:

I wonder what I would be called by that, or at what point you change your last name. I don't know, maybe my kids would have a different last name than the one I was born with. But anything that is tied to jobs and names I find really interesting. So there you go. Your profession could equal your name, figure out what yours would be and have a little fun with that. So thank you for listening today. Please like, subscribe to the channel, share it with anyone you think would be interested and, as always, ask me questions or debate anything I've said. I love feedback and I look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks,