White-collar jobs crisis comes home to roost in Trump’s America

U.S. President Donald Trump continues to claim that the American economy suffered a major downturn under former President Joe Biden and that post-Biden America is seeing an employment renaissance — both blue-collar and white-collar. Liberal economist Paul Krugman, however, counters that job creation soared during Biden's presidency. And according to i Paper reporter Noah Berlatsky, the United States is now suffering a white-collar jobs crisis.

Berlatsky, in the UK-based i Paper, cites examples of experienced white-collar workers who, 19 months into Trump's second presidency, are having trouble finding work no matter how many resumés they send out.

"The U.S. economy has not officially slipped into a recession," Berlatsky explains, "but it is hardly robust. The unemployment rate is a relatively low 4.1 per cent, but that is partly because discouraged workers who are not looking for jobs are not counted in the statistics…. As some people opt to give up or retire, labor force participation in the last two months has fallen to 61.4 per cent. If you exclude pandemic shutdowns, it is the lowest since the 1970s."

Berlatsky adds, "This month, the Labor Department reported U.S. payroll reductions of 23,000 and, in a particularly grim sign, revised down job numbers for May and June by 103,000. The professional sector has looked especially shaky."

Connecticut-based Michael, a 45-year-old writer/editor who has been out of work for 18 months, described his job search as "brutally demoralizing" and told the i Paper, "I'm watching things like retirement or a college education for my child recede further and further from reality. I want to work. I'm desperate to work, but work doesn't want me."

Tessa, a 39-year-old astrobiologist in Arizona, took a job as a Starbucks barista "out of desperation," according to Berlatsky but eventually found work as a "research facilitator."

Freelance writer Kimberly Harrington, whose past clients included Netflix, Nike and Apple, told the i Paper that "as Trump came into office, things went sideways really fast for businesses."

Harrington added, "There was so much uncertainty that things just froze. No one felt like they could make a decision. Budgets got killed, projects got killed."

"Harrington has not been able to find a full-time job, and says that this year is the worst year she's ever had in 20 years of freelancing, including the period following the 2008 collapse," Berlatsky reports. "Clark, a 34-year-old who has worked for seven years as an editor, told the i Paper that he has been struggling. He was laid off from a media company in January 2024, found a job in March 2025, and was laid off again that October…. Clark has now been out of work for long enough that his family has had to let their nanny go, which means he will be doing full-time childcare while his wife works and will have less time to search for a job, though he hopes to continue to look."

Clark told the i Paper, "It just seems to indicate a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusing mixed messaging. I don't know if these roles are being offered in good faith or what is actually happening internally. It's a very confusing and stressful time to be applying."