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Good evening. First-time unemployment claims fell this week to 197,000, and lately they’ve been flirting with a decades-long low. That’s the low-hire, low-hire economy for ya. Economists look at these initial claims as a proxy for layoffs, but we’re going to start today with a look at what those unlucky few end up doing after their jobs are cut. — Tony Wagner, newsletter editor  
Job seekers at a career fair
SouthState completed a merger of its own last year. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
Laid off? Odds are your new job will come with a big change
And Marketplace’s Caleigh Wells reports that career change could be for the better.
Odds are that if a person gets laid off, they’re going to switch to an entirely new job.

A study from career transition company LHH found that 57.7% of the laid off people the firm surveyed said that they swapped job titles in 2025. That figure has stayed roughly the same for the past three years.

However, the top reasons people have lost their jobs — and the reasons they’re switching — are new.

Once upon a time (as in, the mid-20th century) the job market was more centered around manufacturing and construction. So, it was more cyclical, according to Guy Berger, director of economic research at The Burning Glass Institute.

“And so, you have these layoffs, and then, eventually, the inventories roll down, and you start producing stuff again,” Berger said. “People get recalled back to work.”

He said that by the 1990s, that cyclical job market was pretty much gone. Now, it’s different.

“You have these permanent layoffs where you lose a job, and the job's gone,” Berger said.
READ MORE


 
News you should know
Let’s do the numbers
  • Stocks were shaky today as bond yields kept rising, but major indexes ended the day basically flat. The S&P 500 closed down less than 0.1%, the Dow fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rose less than 0.1%.

  • Despite surging mortgage rates, new home sales rose in August to an eight-month high. Not for nothing, a bigger share of homebuyers are exploring adjustable-rate mortgages to save money. 
Tech
  • President Donald Trump will host a state dinner tonight with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and a bunch of tech CEOs. Here’s who’s on the guest list, and what they’ll be eating.

  • Can Xi and Trump find common ground on AI? We talked about it on “Marketplace Tech” today.

  • This time next week, Google will be testing a data center in space.

  • Callers are sick of AI phone trees, call center employees are increasingly trying to communicate with bots calling in on customers’ behalf. 
Air travel
  • Facing a controller shortage, the FAA began testing AI-assisted air traffic control this week.

  • Jet fuel prices are high, and airlines are cutting unprofitable routes as the summer travel season ends.

  • Weather and tech issues have caused flight cancellations to jump recently. Here are some tips to manage stress on your trip.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There is no corralling Fed speakers. None, zero, zippo.”
— Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO at QI Research
New-ish Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has been keeping mum about the central bank’s next moves, but other officials are increasingly filling the forward guidance gap.
READ MORE
Doritos on display at a store.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Final note
The price hikes will continue until morale improves
PepsiCo slashed prices by double digits earlier this year. Now, after disappointing earnings last quarter, the company is planning hikes on chips, dip and other products. A spokesperson told Bloomberg the new  prices will still be lower than they were before those big earlier cuts, which makes me wonder what they were trying to pull with $7 Doritos in the first place.
 
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