Mad Hedge Technology Letter
February 21, 2024
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE HIRING QUAGMIRE IN TECH)
(GENZ)
Posts
A slightly worrisome trend is emerging from the tech world and it has to do with the future of the American tech worker.
These employees could pose quite a conundrum to tech companies in the near future that could drastically affect the results they desire.
Something needs to change or there could be many open gaps that cannot be filled.
As the baby boomers age out of the job market and are replaced, it’s not necessarily the Millennial generation that is the big problem, it’s Gen Z.
Gen Z is more or less having a hard time committing to even an interview based on fresh data from digital recruitment sites.
As tech companies vow to make leanness mandatory, this doesn’t bode well for the volume of tech hiring for Gen Z who are in their 20s.
Remember when friends of friends could get Facebook management jobs only to sip on lattes all day at the in-house coffee bar, well, that job doesn’t exist anymore because even Facebook is ridding itself of the slack. Those jobs were mainly dominated by Millennials up until the pandemic and have vanished with the pressure of higher inflation.
No more hiring to make it look like tech companies are bigger than they are. Tech firms can’t afford it anymore.
Results matter now and the up-and-coming generation who were extremely coddled as teenagers are having a hard time coming to terms with reality.
Now Gen Z is treating their would-be employers like bad first dates and not showing up for scheduled job interviews or even their first day on the job without as much as a phone call.
Employment website Indeed found that job ghosting is rampant by Gen Z, with 75% of workers saying they’ve ignored a prospective employer in the past year.
A head-spinning 93% of Gen Zers told the global recruitment platform that they’ve flaked out of an interview.
Worse still, a staggering 87% managed to charm their way through interviews, secure the job, and sign the contract, only to leave their new boss stranded on the very first day.
Unsurprisingly, it’s having the opposite effect on businesses left high and dry: More than half of businesses surveyed have said that ghosting has made hiring a harder and costlier process.
Almost half of those surveyed said they plan on pulling a disappearing act again, with a third deeming it acceptable to do so before an interview.
However, unlike Gen Z who feel emboldened, older workers say they instantly regret it.
What’s more, while more than half of Gen Zers are repeat offenders, the researchers found that a candidate’s likelihood to ghost again decreases with age.
For many employers, Indeed’s data will finally confirm their suspicions that Gen Z has commitment issues.
Indeed found that the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated ghosting, with around 40% of those surveyed admitting that they're more likely to ghost if they find a job offering better pay or a cheaper commute.
Tech companies are in a race against time to automate using AI, because dipping into the Gen Z talent pool could be not being able to fill staff numbers.
Even if Gen Z employees do get hired, they do tend to disappear without a trace quite quickly.
Either way, tech companies will need to find a solution for a young US workforce that isn’t Silicon Valley material.
AI is arriving at just the right time to save their bacon.
Mad Hedge Bitcoin Letter
October 27, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(SILVER LININGS)
(BTC), (GOOGL), (GENZ)
With all the Dr. Dooms out there and you know there are many – it might seem like a broken record.
With the barrage of criticism thrown at crypto lately, it almost seems as if there is no future for it, but I would not agree with that.
The future path of crypto is surrounded by silver linings that investors cannot ignore and I believe that is what we need to take away from 2022.
I found it interesting that in Google’s earnings report yesterday, they singled out crypto as an important source of advertising revenue.
Google’s management acknowledged that the crypto “winter” has sullied digital ad revenue and was viewed before as a handsomely generating growth asset.
Google posted its worst revenue growth since 2013 and blaming it on the crypto underperformance is a sign that there could be a future place for crypto.
Financial firms advertise relentlessly on mainstream media channels and big media need those dollars.
Even more important than just the pure digital ad revenue that crypto generates is its audience base.
Let’s not upsell this thing, many got burnt and will never come back.
However, several surveys have highlighted Gen Z and Millennial fervent appetite for this exotic asset class.
Charles Schwab, an asset manager, published its latest survey, illustrating the preference for Bitcoin and Crypto investment by a substantial portion of Gen Z and Millennials.
According to the study, 46% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennials wish to invest in cryptocurrencies to aid their retirement plans.
Additionally, the survey found that 43% of Gen Z and 47% of Millennials have begun investing in crypto outside their 401K.
After the arbitrary lockdowns and hyperinflation over the past few years, younger people are beginning to question the traditional paths to retirement if not the whole US financial system.
Some are straight-up cynical about it as the stock market got clobbered in 2022.
Bonds haven’t done much better and this year could be one of the first years to experience a scenario in which bonds and stocks went down together.
So take the classic investment strategy of 60/40 allocation.
By holding 60% of your portfolio in stocks and 40% in bonds, the thinking goes, you get the best of both worlds: high growth potential from your riskier stocks and protection from your more conservative bonds.
In this new world with new rules, traditional nostrums are thrown out the window.
The same goes for cookie-cutter ETF index funds.
A reset is needed.
The truth is that building wealth is a lot harder in a world where stocks and bonds go down substantially because of the massive overprinting of dollars by the federal government.
There is no free lunch anymore and many upper middle class families thought they were in the free-and-clear on an easy gondola ride to retirement.
Yet, they have been dragged back into the rat race legs screaming as products and services are up anywhere from 8%-50% depending on where you live.
Yes, crypto is on life support, but don’t count it out as once the Fed pivots, Bitcoin will stage a relentless rally and I view the biggest enemy of crypto are the participants themselves.
Sadly, the percentage of American families needing to finance an evasive retirement life is inching up and the young and old shouldn’t write off crypto yet.
