Less affluent Americans in particular have been squeezed by higher prices. But Wednesday’s data showed that on the whole, American consumers continued to splash out in the third quarter, with spending on healthcare, food and accommodation rising.This includes software engineers in many of the recent layoffs, as well as artists, photographers, and animators I know who have had a significant drop in typical advertising work with the advent of AI. Many of them have switched to gig work like Uber or Doordash, which makes them considered "employed" in employment surveys.
I do understand why the "economy" might grow - reducing expenses while maintaining revenue can definitely do that, but I don't know how long something like this can be sustainable. Eventually you do need consumers to purchase things in the economy and not just circular financing of compute.
I wonder what the final end state is going to look like in a few years.
That's true for the classic "U-1" unemployment rate. But the U-6 captures the "marginally attached" as well, and it hasn't shot upward.
Much of this was offshored earlier this decade independent of AI.
The sunsetting of film and art production tax credits and subsidizes in much of North America while the UK, Europe, NZ, India, and Colombia dramatically ramped theirs up meant much of the industry got offshored.
And new media has changed how advertising works. Influencer and guerrilla advertising lands better as it feels more "authentic" amongst consumers. This also reduces spend on traditional advertising and the teams needed to do so.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2026/10/02/insid...