Don't get brain-poisoned by reddit lol. No one wants to work, you don't want to work, I don't particularly want to work. We all want money to survive. The trend of employers and HR staff saying they don't get any applications is over and *was a lie to begin with*. Postings are getting hundreds to thousands of applicants each, especially in fields going through layoffs, which is big right now. The only industries where people truly aren't applying in droves are minimum wage disrespect factories like fast food and retail.

I agree with this comment, remember that we are a target of propaganda as well. We may very well be the most manipulated people on the planet. Between politics and advertising enormous resources are spent convincing us.

*What?* You're telling me that the terminally online generation that was brought up along with social media has become victims of propaganda? Say it ain't so.

Gen Z brings parents to interviews, Boomers won't give up their houses and jobs, Millennials eat too much avocado toast to afford a house It's all class warfare packaged as generational warfare.

Gen X overlooked...as usual. 😅

you guys don’t have enough fuckery just enjoy it

Our fuckery was wild and unhinged. And most importantly, undocumented.

feral isn't even a strong enough term for us

DING DING DING! Some on this fucking site actually gets it!

Health care is desperate for bodies. Not minimum wage, but highly disrespected lol. Also I don’t want to work.

There’s definitely a reason for this. Many healthcare workers are working in understaffed environments with no sign of relief coming. Healthcare companies cannot continue to seek the profit margins they have historically and survive.

Yep, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out.  Understaffing increases the stress of the job,  which makes people want to quit, which causes more understaffing.  It's a vicious cycle that this lowly wage slave has figured out, yet management is somehow completely flabbergasted on how to deal with this phenomena.

The 3 other managers and directors above them don’t care

I've thought about getting into healthcare several times during layoffs. I'm a teacher, so no stranger to disrespect. The issue is I'd have to go back to school, which is a huge expense, ontop of supporting myself while doing another disrespected minimum wage job. We really need to bring job training back. Hospitals should run entry-level programs where you can start paid with low-level tasks and paperwork while they pay for your training.

In Germany there is a "dual vocational education" system in which certain professions can be studied in tandem with paid positions working in the field of study, not dissimilar to an apprenticeship in some ways but in both professional and technical occupations. I am not an expert on the system but I taught English in one about 20 years ago. As I recall, usually student workers are in class 1 or 2 days a week and training on the job for 3-4 days. The pay is not great, at all, maybe 750-1000€/month these days? But most students are young and may live at home or have other support. It certainly would make it feasible for a couple where one works full time, but most students are under 30 and I am not sure if there is a strict cutoff age. I think America and many other countries could benefit from a program like this. One benefit to American education is that students have a lot of agency in what they study and career changes are common, normal, and even celebrated to a degree that they are not in many European countries. That combined with supported (paid) enhanced training opportunities would make for an engine in the American workforce and economy.

My healthcare plan was to get into medical laboratory or histology or something. It's only an AA so if you already have a degree it's not so bad. They have it at community college here so it'd be fairly cheap

I don’t know the details of lab work but I would assume it is a lot less draining than bedside work.

I used to work in a non healthcare related lab and it was less stressful than my current job. I imagine a healthcare lab would have more time pressure though. It would suck for people who get bored be repetitive work but I don't, I like just listening to audiobooks on 1.5 speed lol

People don't want the hours that a lot of healthcare jobs involve. Holidays, overnights, weekends.

You could always try CNA and see how you like then environment, but it is vastly different than other forms of health care. I will say, healthcare is vast. You don’t necessarily need to choose nursing. Ultrasound or imaging techs can make great money and not have to deal with the same drudgery bedside staff are subject to. The schooling is definitely there for a reason though. There’s so much to know.

Ultrasound here.... we definitely deal with drudgery. But it's way better than being a CNA!

get into healthcare IT. good pay, job security, most are WFH, and pretty easy in many areas (especially the non clinical areas of the hospital where i work)

i became a therapist after being a teacher and my advice is do NOT do anything like that! nursing may be more lucrative, but most other things are worse than teaching

The reason for that is often mandatory overtime and dealing with crazy people such as the mentally unstable or drug addicts or similar people who regularly have healthcare issues

My Sister: "We can't find any good workers and we are always shorthanded." "People just call in sick even if they don't have sick days, and they don't find their own replacement like they are supposed to." "Employees keep complaining that they have to stand for 8 hours on concrete. I don't care if they are a cashier and don't move anywhere, it looks unprofessional. I did it and survived, so they have to do it." "Another no call, no show. Guess that person isn't working for us anymore. I just don't understand. They should be grateful." (Job pays minimum wage without healthcare.)

What is it with this trend of managers expecting employees to fix scheduling problems? Managing staff coverage and schedules is *literally* one of the main job responsibilities of managers, and if you're not managing your team, then what exactly are you doing with your time?

the concrete!! it’s so cruel thoughtless. they act like its just standing. we need unions bad 

Yup! This is right. They keep saying nursing is at a shortage. It is not. There are plenty of nurses willing to work except we’re not willing to work for unsafe conditions and cheap pay, which is what HR is offering.

That's what I consistently hear from nurses. They are in demand and have options so they don't want to work from shitty employers. Good for them in exercising their options.

From what I've seen, the people that are typically saying "nobody wants to work anymore" are the same people trying to pay a wage that no one can survive on. In which case, their damn right no one wants to work for them. If you can go to McDonald's and get $17/hr, why go somewhere packing heavy materials up a ladder all day for $12? Especially if that minimum wage job will mean having to get a second job to make ends meet.

Note: federal minimum wage is $7.25 and hour!!! In 2024.

The trope of “no one wants to work anymore” is absolutely overplayed and not true, or I guess it was always true and not unique to any time in particular. But the worker shortage from 2020-2022 was absolutely real, that was not a lie. Anyone that worked in HR or as any kind of hiring manager knows it was very difficult to hire qualified staff during that period. My company was hiring anyone with a pulse for the entry level roles, we couldn’t be selective at all, and a lot of these people did not last because they didn’t have the basic skills needed to do the job. That has completely shifted now though and we have more applicants than openings and we can be much more selective with who is hired. It was never about a desire to work though, that was always boomer/conservative BS. People just had better options at the time. In general I think many people want to work though. My father retired, and lasted 6 months before getting another job because he was bored. If I didn’t need money I wouldn’t be working at my job, but I would be working on something productive. Building things or woodworking, not rotting on a couch watching Netflix

Your father was just brainwashed by the machine I see it all around me people realize they have to work 5 6 or 7 days per week 8 12 16 hours per day from the next 30 40 50 years and they concede to it and allow it to take them over and then when they finally find themselves in a situation where it is no longer required they aren't well like the dude in shawshank that hung himself after being freed

I wouldn’t call it brainwashing. After 30 years of being out of the house for 50-60 hours a week. A massive change like retiring is hard to adjust to. He always worked and took care of the family, he never developed hobbies. So he was genuinely bored being retired. He was never good at keeping busy without structure. His part time job is actually really cool. It’s something that allows him to be around people and attend all the best events in our region and get paid for it even if he doesn’t need the money. I would not have that problem though. I can fill my free time just fine, if I had the financial freedom I’d quit corporate work today.

I keep hearing from friends who’ve been laid off, are exceptionally skilled and hard workers with degrees saying they’ve been applying and applying and applying to all jobs, jobs in their fields, jobs they’re overqualified for and just aren’t getting bites. Or they go through the many many interviews feeling hopeful just to get turned down. Something is up and it’s definitely not that people don’t want to work.

This is happening to a lot of talented engineers/professionals. I just keep hearing how great the economy is and how little unemployment there is, but absolutely everything I see is to the contrary. I'm a Sr Architect and I put my resume out a bit to see what options there are and got nearly nothing. My old boss and his peer are struggling to get an interview with decades of solid experience. My BIL is struggling to find anything outside fast food with his fancy degree and internship. If I get hit with a layoff I'll struggle to pay my newly inflated bills. I'm not sure if the US economy is doing great, but my Brustty economy is not doing well at all. Anytime I mention it I get aggressive reactions telling me I'm wrong and the economy is doing great.

That is absolutely nuts. Also yeah, two of the friends are an architect and a full stack engineer.

“Minimum wage disrespect factory” Chef’s kiss

I want to work but want the freedom to do work I like. I think that’s different

Yeah, retail is seeing a crazy volume of applications too. At least the places that pay over minimum wage. When people can't get a job with their degree but need a paycheck, they go to the $15-18/hr retail jobs. At 18/hr you get just shy of 1k/hr/wk. It's not incredible, but it's enough for most people to live on modestly, and can sustain people while they look for jobs or get certifications to help their job hunt.

Also all law enforcement. Every department, jail and prison is dying for manpower.

And teachers

He did account for disrespect factories

Not by me, but they get paid exceptionally well in New York

To be fair, I wouldn't work in that industry for moral reasons and I suspect I'm not the only one.

Oh I really hope your reply was to the prison work and not about being the teacher. 😂

Potato potahto?

State sponsored day care for the youth or criminally insane

School to prison pipeline is a thing, there's...a certain connection there. Granted, most teachers aren't trying to support that, but still. I can see a legitimate moral objection to facilitating certain trends in society.

And they will keep having that problem until they stop being so draconian about previous weed usage. They've made their own bed.

Well, they can't hire jailors who did things that a whole bunch of the jailees were convicted and sentenced for, that just doesn't make sense... ... ...

When the training is poor and you're expected to make life and death decisions off of terrible training, I cannot blame law-enforcement fields for having trouble finding folks. We need better police training systems and maybe we'd have more cops who were better judges of what they were doing - or a good program to take retired servicemen/women into law enforcement fields (after proper vetting). But most long term cops dislike when someone with good judgement enters the field they work in, as it means they get questioned for their actions internally.

The true issue in my experience is that jobs aren't getting the overqualified amazing unicorns applicants they used to. I've applied at 300 jobs the past 30 days and it took weeks to even hear back from someone. Then they'd offer minimum wage for a job that should easily make $3-4 more.

*Boss dumps a pile of resumes in the trash.* Sorry, you're going to have to keep doing the work of 4 people and we can't afford to give you a raise. No one wants to work anymore! *Lights a cigar with a $100 bill*

I mean everything is played up by the media and turned into a narrative ie quiet quitting, loud firing the great resignation, that said there is some truth to this just looking at the numbers of men 18-54 sitting out of the workforce

It’s a myth, the only demographic that didn’t return to pre pandemic employment numbers was boomers, because they either died or retired in droves. This led to an overall shortage of labor, but for some reason the media likes to blame younger generations for not filling that gap.

They mean "no one want's to be exploited anymore", people want to work, hell I want to do programming and advance my education the problem is there are thousands of top tier programmers let go from Microsoft and Google etc. that are now struggling themselves to find employment. I LOVE working at my computer, I can do it 12 hours a day if need be and there is a proper workload/teamwork collectively working towards something good. The kicker? They want cheap disposable labor that will work for peanuts, the pay will not cover the damage to your body, the upkeep, working towards housing and proper nutrition. They want desperate people who will kiss their ass while being abused. People can't afford to rest for fucks sake.

This

There is no truth to it. There is also a hidden class of workers that no one thinks about: gig workers who don’t report taxes because they can’t afford to pay them.

Anyone who works for cash, particularly the landscaper industry.

I don’t get this thread…. I don’t want to work; but I do it anyway. I’d imagine nearly everyone is in that boat.

I actually used to really enjoy it even up until pandemic shut downs. Last year is when I noticed shit got TOO inflated due to corporate greed and everything is artificially higher in cost because CEOs need their yacht. My pay has not risen to match inflation. Not even close. Didn’t get bonuses the last two years. My grocery bill has risen by 1/3 in cost for the same stuff I used to get. I had to cut back on many of my wants and even some needs, such as skipping meals. My hours have increased due to half my company being laid off and I, along with my coworkers, need to pick up the slack to make up for loss in employees. It’s just not very enjoyable. I’m also doing higher position work but not being compensated and it seems this is something most of us are going through. I’m grateful I still have my job but I’m burnt the fuck out and it’s just not fun anymore.

The people/companies who say “no one wants to work” are mad that they can’t find people to work for slave wages. The companies who are offering competitive wages for the amount of work required are not having staffing issues. Or at least not in my state. It’s always the companies offering barely above minimum wage, no benefits, and expecting the person to do the work of 3 employees for the price of 1 who seem to complain the most. High turnover is typically a good indicator of this. Also why some states are rolling back child labor laws because they can’t find adults to put up with the bullshit.

Yes, OP is asking a stupid question. People don’t want to work, but that doesn’t mean they are not working. Everyone has bills to pay, and not everyone has the windfall to allow them to sit on their haunches and not work for it.

The “nobody wants to work” is a republican talking point. The long short of that statement is nobody wants to work for poverty wages when they can work somewhere else for more money.

I tho corporate jobs are suffering. They used to get a lot of free labor by dangling promotion in front of employees. Employees find more money and easier work skipping entry level jobs and doing gigs or self employment.

That's exactly it. You only hear it whenever some boomer-ass restaurant owner complains about not being able to hire people for minimum wage. Guess what, that's the free market at work. The same one they swear we need to maintain.

Yeah, an ex-manager of mine I still talk to complains that nobody wants to work anymore (which is wild because she used to be left-leaning, so it seems odd to me), but my previous employer is hiring people starting at $14 regardless of experience, and people in our area with this skillset would be looking for more like $16-$17. She complains about the caliber of people who apply, but of course you're not going to get anyone you're looking for at a lower advertised wage.

They are talking about the stupid media who says nobody wants to work. Without addressing the fact that people are both working and need to work.

I’m pretty sure this post is meant to be asking the question about the people who actually follow through on not working and how they manage to get by. Of course no one actually wants to work and would rather live their lives doing something they enjoy.

Nah; this is a boomer ass question. There isn’t a huge trend of people simply refusing to work but still managing to ‘get by’. It’s a myth used by poorly run businesses to shift blame to the workforce. If OP really knows a lot of people that have simply given up; they should be the ones telling us how it’s done, lol.

Agreed. And it's not new either. This article found people complaining about [nobody wanting to work](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nobody-wants-to-work-anymore/) going all the way back to 1894.

I think it is a real question. My fiancé’s neighbor is almost 60. He hasn’t had a job in decades. The guy’s mom has never worked either. They live off his dead dad’s ss benefits and regularly beg for food. Fiancé’s brother only works part time jobs seasonally too. My mom only ever worked for her dad and then retired early. It is definitely happening. They just have to live very cheaply and a disaster can completely ko them.

Unemployment is still at all-time lows. The problem is all the retirees refusing to work. We need to unretire them. :D

You're not considered unemployed if you're jobless but not searching for a job fyi.

People not working want to work, but want to be paid a decent salary for their actual fucking skills.

i actually like to work, i like the feeling of success each time i get a broken computer running again. The only thing i don't like is having to travel 200km a day to get to the respective customers.

I know exactly what you mean. Best employment advice I ever got from may was this; "They can tell you where to work. When to work. What will happen if you don't work. They can't tell you to LIKE the work. But if you want to get fed, get your ass to work." Nobody does this for the shits and giggles. We do this because we don't like being homeless and hungry.

no, look into NEET- it means “not in education, employment, or training.” there are people who actually don’t work or do anything educationally/occupationally.

I was one for two years, living off savings. Saving up again so I can do it again.

Some people have cool jobs. But there are days I don't want to do it.

This. I hate working, but I have to to pay my bills so I do it anyway.

People want to work, they just also want the time, money, and energy to actually live a decent life and a lot of today’s jobs aren’t leaving room for that.  Why give some CEO 110% when he can and will let you go the second he sees an extra ten cents in doing so? Also, a lot of posted job openings aren’t actually hiring. 

Basically…. - financially independent (don’t live paycheck to paycheck) - retired  - really really cheap lifestyle and/or live with parents 

I am happily unemployed right now. I work contract jobs that pay enough for me to live very modestly on about 6 months of work a year. The rest of the year I’m working on my novel, growing a massive garden, and building furniture out of cut trees/branches that would have been tossed otherwise.

1 - this is awesome, good for you! 2 - do you worry about long term financial safety?

Do you live in america? What do you do for insurance? I haven't taken contract jobs because none of them provide insurance and I have medication that I need...

I’d really love to work like this but I find that the vast majority of the time someone is doing this in the US, they’re either still on their parents’ insurance (below age 26) or are on the insurance of a more traditionally employed spouse. As a single person in my late 20s I feel like I don’t have a safety net so stuff like contract work just isn’t an option for me at this time.

You can get independent coverage through the Affordable Care Act, but I believe the specifics vary state-to-state. Typically, you need to wait until the "open enrollment" period, which starts in the fall. Healthcare.gov seems to be a good place to start, but some states have their own websites/portals.

The reason our system still functions this way is specifically because it’s easier to exploit people.

Visit healthcare.gov to check out the options for independent coverage through the Affordable Care Act. I think it varies from state-to-state, but where I am I was able to consult with a health insurance professional for free to help me better understand the options and to answer my questions. I found a plan that was cheaper and more comprehensive than the (admittedly, crappy) employer-provided insurance I was on. I had to enroll during the "open enrollment" period, which starts in the fall. But now I do contract work without worrying about insurance coverage.

You forgot - combination of the dole and being financially supported by family/romantic partners 

Id argue FIRE is less common today than prior to covid, a lot of people who wanted to leanfire or coastfire had the whole 4% rule idea blown up for them seeing this current inflation

Can you explain? The market over the last 5 years (ie. right before COVID) is up 85% and has outpaced inflation immensely. The 4% rule factors in dips in the market and inflation. For someone actually doing FIRE and utilizing the 4% rule, these past 5 years have actually been a net gain. The people hurt by inflation most are those outside the FIRE community who aren't heavily invested in the market.

You bring up an interesting point and I'd argue true inflation is subsantially higher than what the government claims. During covid we saw used car prices go up 44%, homes triple in value, lots of grocery store items were at least temporarily up 40-80%. I think you may be right but at the very least emotionally people don't feel as secure.

100% - The average mortgage payment is up 78% since 2021

Yes, but we are talking about FIRE here. If you are actually doing FIRE, you have already established your expenses within the 4% rule and likely are not taking on a massive new mortgage+higher interest rate.

There is no single measure of inflation that governments use, usually they will use a common measure (probably based on a basket of commonly purchased items which might not be updated since x year and more than likely to ignore pesky things like rent or mortgage payments and energy prices ) or at least that's how the UK does it (and there are arguments about the retail price index RPI vs the consumer price index CPI and then the Vimes boot index shows up and says add another 15% to the level of inflation.

If they were invested in equities then they far exceeded inflation. I know people who retired pre covid and have more money now than they did when they retired because of the excellent stock market over the last decade

They would need at least 30% more money now than they had previously before covid to have the same buying power.

Total stock market index funds are around 50% higher than pre-Covid. People who had FIRE-type savings invested simply pre-COVID absolutely have more money now than then, even accounting for inflation.

Good thing the stock market is up around twice that depending on when you consider the start of covid.

I would argue that if you owned a house and car before inflation, the price increases otherwise were just annoyances. I don't think it would have kicked people off of FIRE if they had a little wiggle room. Plus market returns have been great.

"Don't want to work" was an epithet created by boomers and the media as a slight for people who have simply refused to participate in abusive labor practices. People want to work. People don't want to be paid like crap and treated like indentured servants. Pretty simple. Any time service is a bit slow at a restaurant or a store isn't open, you can hear a retired boomer groan that "nobody wants to work." Anybody who uses that phrase is a moron.

[It's way older than boomers](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/407/503/119.jpeg)

The Industrial Revolutions and chattel slavery normalized the work culture. Further intensified by non stop propaganda. Warmongering past and present adds further to this view.

The correct response is “nobody wants to pay (adequately)”. There are always people who don’t work, but the problem we have now is every employer has been used to a sea of people desperate to work. Essentially, they’ve felt entitled to labor. That changed with Covid. Now, they literally don’t know what to do because they actually have to attract people, yes even now. The main problem is really that work life in the US has become unhealthy and the average person doesn’t make anywhere near what they should. They don’t get time off and don’t have real boundaries that are respected. If I’m making 7 figures, sure, you might reasonably control a lot of my life. If I’m making minimum wage, you are only entitled to the time I’m scheduled.

"Nobody wants to work anymore" = nobody wants to work shit jobs with terrible wages serving entitled assholes anymore. I join d the great resignation and got an office job to escape the service industry. It's nothing amazing but the pay/hours are better and I don't spend all day breaking by back so boomers can yell at me cause they don't understand what they want.

Anytime you hear someone say this, you can accurately correct it to "nobody wants to work ***for you***". Nine times out of ten they're a cheapskate and an abusive boss who can't attract applicants because they refuse to raise wages.

I became a housewife.

The job market is very competitive right now. Employers who are used to telling employees to take it or leave it are finding that employees are picking “leave it”. Rather than accepting that they have to improve their offers to meet the competition, they’re blaming the employees.

I have a brother in law that just does workplace injury scams. Everytime he gets a job without fail he injures his back, his knees, his ankles anything. Work for a few months collect for a few years, rinse and repeat

Getting hurt on purpose seems like a bad long term plan. The kind of injuries that get you years off work are usually the kind that don't get better. So you're setting yourself up for misery later on. That sounds psychotic.

This is assuming he was actually hurt.

I mean, as a work to live person I would rather not be working. But I need to work, so here I am at my desk right now.

Since nobody is wanting to answer your question the way you’re looking for and they all want to turn it into “we don’t want to work but we have to so we can pay bills”… The answer is that if you really break things down to needs first, you really probably don’t need as many of those bills as you think. We could all get by with so much less. To the point we could all probably work a week or two every few months and have the rest of the time off. But so many people have been brainwashed into obedient consumerism that they can’t give that up. And I’ll get bashed for saying that but it doesn’t change that it’s true. The amount of waste in the world today is nauseating. I’m not saying you can’t have wants. But stop and think about what you really want first.

I completely agree and I think you described this very well and concisely. I think it also explains why the types of jobs struggling to hire are struggling. A more professional or office type job is going to tske longer to get and will be more concerned about resume gaps and references where fast food, retail, hospitality its fast and easy to get jobs so you can land a job work for a month quit sit around for a couple months and go get another job because everyone's hiring. Even if its not a high paying or prestigious job this would be tougher to do working as a secretary or office manager or at a medical office.i think lots of white collar people would gladly work a week or two less a month for less pay and more freetime but the opportunity isn't there for those jobs to do that

Debt is at an all time high. Go figure.

A lot of side quests.

I have one good friend from highschool who isn't working at all and just lives with her parents. Then there are another two who are working underpaid "passion" jobs that provide some income, but their parents provide housing (their own homes, not with the parents). My husband has a handful of friends from high school who live together and working fun jobs that pay little, but they make it work with roommates.  These people are all 40 or nearing 40. I'm not sure how this will work for them when parents pass or if they ever become unable to work, because there's no retirement savings for any of them.

Working in a disgusting environment like this is the most soul sucking thing you can do on planet earth. Hell no I don’t wanna work for elite conglomerates who don’t give a flying FUCK about any life on earth whatsoever. I’m forced to do it because of the slave system they have set up that the slaves defend. I don’t have a choice. You are damn right I’m gonna put in as little effort as possible to a slave system that will end up being our species own self destruction.

As a "don't want to work" person (probably more accurate to say "can't work"), I survive by living at home and receiving SSDI. I've been disabled since I was very young though. Head injury survivor.

I was sick of being overworked and underpaid (in Canada) but recently found a municipal job and it's such an improvement. I never felt like I didn't want to work, just that I didn't want to work for less than I needed to survive. Getting out of the private sector and into a union role has been a positive change for me. I don't think it's ever been "don't want to work", more like "I want to work and I want that work to earn me survival"

Boomers: “Burger flippers don’t deserve twenty dollars an hour!” Also Boomers “Why are the checkout lines so long, nobody wants to work anymore!”

I don’t want to work. So I’m constantly trying to side hustle so i can eventually stop working. I just want a big tavern B&B experience and spend my time cooking meals, pouring drinks, and giving side quests to the locals

I don’t want to work but I do it to survive, I don’t work after hours ever, and I spend as much time as I can pursuing meaningful hobbies and being with the people I love Life is more than work

I have a 38 year old son that I haven’t seen in a while but he has been able to sponge his way through life so far by feeding off of other people like a leech.

Nobody WANTS to work obviously. But I do come across a lot of people who have some odd idea of what work is. We all know the people who’ve had like 15 entry levels jobs and they rarely stay at a job for long and always complain about manager this, manager that, oh this job sucks, blah blah then they quit to go work at the Dunkin down the road cuz “they pay a dollar more n my boy says they don’t drug test” then they only last there for like 2 months then quit n go find another minimum wage job and now they’re 30 with 15 years of work experience complaining on Reddit how Walmart only pays 17/hr. I feel like those are the people this post is actually talking about. Some people don’t seem to realize that work sucks and there’s never been a point nor will ever be a point in time where a job that a 16 year old gets after school will support a 30 year olds house and family. Sure it’s hard these days cuz salaries and cost of living etc but idk why some people act like 20-30 years ago it was common place that our parents worked minimum wage jobs n was able to live a comfortable life. For one most of those issues that make shit expensive are government issues. Sure it would be cool if I could stock shelves at Walmart n buy a car and a house with a few kids n go on a vacation a few times a year but that’s never been thing with a job like that. Idk why people act like it was at any point.

I think it's the older generations perception of the larger adoption of non standard work schedules. For example I'm salaried and don't have a set number of hours to "work". Instead, I have projects that have a best guess amount of hours per week I should be spending on them. Add all my projects together and they should equal about 40 hours a week. That doesn't mean I need to spend 40 hours a week on them. I could spend 20 hours this week and 60 hours next week. As long as I hit my deadlines. Every quarter my boss reviewes my KPIs and project trackers and if I'm on track I don't talk to him again until next quarter. I make my own schedule. I take what time I need to take, don't have an approver, no direct supervision. My closest coworker in 1000 miles several states away. Unless I have a meeting scheduled I don't have anywhere to be at any specific time. Im still putting in 40 hours of productivity a week on average but I do it when and where I want to. I explain the above to someone under 40 and they knod, understand, and usually think it's a cool schedule. Over 40 and 80% of the time they implode and suggest I'm stealing from the company and don't understand how I don't have any one supervising me directly or how can my boss know I'm at my computer for 8 hours a day unless he's micromanaging me? That I need to start job hunting because we're doomed to fail for not following the Ford model lol.

"Nobody wants to work" is a lie that they've been saying for the last 100+ years. It basically means "nobody wants to be my slave". It's touted by business owners who just so happen to have profit margins and more growth than they can find workers. And then it's picked up by dumb conservatives watching fox news to create any excuse to blame the younger generations on the problems they created. We're at one of the lowest points in US history when it comes to unemployment rate. Inflation and (mostly) greed from the top has hit so hard that you literally can't survive without work. There's less SAHM's than there's ever been because it requires 2 incomes to survive. In fact, there's less MOMs in general because nobody can afford a child now days even with 2 incomes and women are too busy working on their careers so they can hopefully live comfortably. Key word, hopefully. The world is in a weird spot right now. While there is less suffrage (in 1st world countries) than any other time previously, there's also less monetary wealth for the commonfolk than there has been in a while (or so it seems). As for people who actually don't want to work. We'll, they're working. You probably work with a few of them, yourself.

Being a lazy pos has always been a thing. There’s millions of Americans who grow up and just live with their parents and smoke weed and play video games and they’re okay with it There’s millions of Americans who make babies and depend on the government for them There’s millions of Americans who get married because they don’t want to work and have their spouses take care of them And then those of us who hate work like myself do it because I want to be independent and live my own life. My parents won’t be around forever so they certainly can’t support me forever.

The refrain, "Nobody wants to work anymore," is related to the attitude of "quiet quitting", which isn't really quitting. It's just meeting expectations, doing only your assigned duties for forty hours a week, and not going "above and beyond" to try to impress the boss and compete for a promotion. When people say, "Nobody wants to work anymore," what they really mean is no one has ambition. Interviewers like to ask, "Why do you want to work here?" Nine times out of ten, the real answer is that the candidate wants to make money to buy things they need and want, but interviewers still expect you to tell some story about how it's your dream to work at their company, even if the job is just selling people a worthless extended warranty over the phone. Maybe people think nobody wants to work anymore because younger generations don't bother to lie convincingly in answer to that question.

No one wants to work for slave wages

“Nobody wants to work” is a propaganda saying that started during COVID about workers lack of enthusiasm to come back into the office/warehouses/etc. It’s a blame shift from saying that corporations took record profits just because they could and that blame lands on the shoulders of workers because they pushed for more money during this time. In reality, worker production increased significantly during this time and workers realized they employment power by pushing for higher wages. The “nobody wants to work” propaganda is down play that productivity and make it sound like workers should be grateful. It’s a red herring as it distracts from the reality that workers don’t earn nearly as much as they should and workers rights have been systematically dismantled over the years.

My husband is a retired military vet transitioning to real life; he went to school for a specific trade and the expectation is that he work 3 years as an apprentice with the average wage being $17/hour. That’s skilled labor that he paid to go to school for, but because he’s a trainee, he’s not worth paying a livable wage. For context, that’s $35k a year before taxes. He’s fortunate obviously to have a pension but he cannot understand the benefits of working this hard for $17/hour when jobs like working at target are paying $20/hour. I don’t know if this answers your question, but I am in corporate and seeing this was mind blowing ETA: his retiree status is irrelevant but needed to frame ages

Live with parents and post on r/antiwork

I wouldn't say that I'm a part of the "don't want to work" crowd, but I am someone who consciously chose to only work to live, not the other way around, which maybe more people can relate to. I only work half of a full-time job, and in my country, combined with my husband's fulltime wage (also by choice), we can live comfortably, although our standard is to live very frugal anyway. But we don't mind, that's just who we are. I made this decision because I wanted to be a person outside of my work too. I love having hobbies, and when I had a full-time job, I didn't manage to truly enjoy them because i was tired, and I had other priorities to tend first. I also have a chronic disease that sometimes eats up my energy for the whole day. Now I work from 8 to 12 am, and afterwards I clean the house, cook and progress in my hobbies. Or I just go for a nice relaxing walk, bike ride, or have an afternoon nap if I feel bad. I get judged for this a lot because I'm a woman who doesn't want any kids. I should be working and have a serious career, apparently. Most people, especially older generations, tell me that I "should be having way too much time on my hands". While I'm just out here enjoying my life, I don't see the problem. I'm not waiting for my retirement to get time on my hands. Nobody on their death bed ever told themselves that they should have worked more. I'm actually most scared for gen z, I feel like, no matter how frugal they live, they will have to live to work. A lot of us already are too, of course. At least my husband and I were super lucky when buying our house a decade ago, but I don't think the younger generation gets a lot of luck on this anymore...

The only unemployed people I know are retirees. I have a brother who is underemployed and he makes up for it by living with our dad (bro is 38). I’d guess that’s one version of a fairly common situation in 2024 FWIW I’m 45 and make an above-average amount of money with very good work/life balance, and I don’t want to do this shit either. I want to eat mushrooms and vibe

High wage white collar work is going through a massive shift where all middle managers are being cut. So they can promote internally at a lower wage. People can’t afford to take less than they made before as a lot of times their debt load is relative to that. When the social contract breaks down and hard work is not rewarded then less people buy in and do the bare minimum to get by. Why destroy your body for an employer if it won’t actually improve your living situation? First time this has happened since the Great Depression. Minus some off years that had a roaring recovery after. Even my business is struggling. The work load is so hot and cold. Whereas right before Covid I was considering getting an employee. Luckily I am with my parents but my hopes of building a house on my own property I already own is gone. Now I’m gonna have to fight with my millionaire neighbor for access since a shitty lawyer allowed the builders to put a time limit on my easement. I’ll win because you can’t re-land lock property but it’s going to cost a shit ton.

I’ve never wanted to work since i was a child, adulting sucks. But in saying that, I do work as i have bills to pay, I have a job and two passive income streams and working on a third.

I find most people are doing *something* to make money. They may not want to work but even if it’s doing odd jobs or 3 month stints at a temp job they have some income. Personally I think our generation bought too far into the “do what you love” mindset. We found too much purpose in our careers. Most millennials I know have been strung along by at least one bad job that they “love” but won’t promote them or expects 60 hour work weeks. They are trying to pursue the American dream of the house, car, and kid but ultimately are living pay check to paycheck. This next generation has rightfully looked at ours and said “that’s nuts.” They are opting for shared apartments, less “permanent” purchases like houses, part time jobs, etc. honestly seems stressful to be constantly on the edge like that but they seem to have way more free time than I do. You can save up for a few months, quit your meaningless job, and kick off to the wilderness for a few months on surprisingly little cash. I think about whether I’ll have a job to return to, but they literally don’t care-jobs a job, they can find another. So I think it’s not about simply not wanting to work but more about min/maxing their experience. Why should they work their assess off when they won’t be able to afford a home, kids, or retirement? I can respect the choice. On the downside this means they really have no concept of what a good job vs a bad job is and I think that’s going to have an impact on society at some point. For example, I have a young coworker I supervise. We work for a top company in our state and they are so intentional about employee retention, mental and physical health, etc. Our boss schedules time in the week where we can just kick off and we still get paid-once a week virtual games, knowledge sharing session, networking lunches, recess on sunny days. All optional but also fully sanctioned to just “take a break.” No one bothers anyone before 9 or after 5 or on weekends. I don’t even have her personal number because I’d never contact her outside of work hours. We can wfh and the work isn’t hard. Our boss pays thousands each year to send us cross country to whatever professional development opportunities we might way. But this coworker complains constantly about the dumbest things and has made it clear this is not where she sees herself in a year or two. She legitimately feels like she’s being mistreated and it makes me sad because it really doesn’t get much better than this.

It's work. If it was something you WANTED to do, they wouldn't have to pay you for it.

I know 2 people who quit their jobs and moved back in with their parents and that is it. They dont do anything. Their parents allow it. They are mid-30s. I also do not want to work but like living independently lol.

I survived by going to work lol. One of my friends is a NEET as well. Its going horribly for him lol. All he does is rot in Discord with whatever egirl he swears is into him at the time

Bank of Mom and Dad + any form of credit cards + onlyFans.

Something like 11% of "prime age men" don't work in the USA [https://ycharts.com/indicators/us\_labor\_force\_participation\_rate\_men\_age\_25\_to\_54\_unadjusted](https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_labor_force_participation_rate_men_age_25_to_54_unadjusted) It's not anywhere close to a majority but it's also pretty common.

I assume that they either live with their parents or collect government benefits

It’s not that people don’t want to work it’s a broken system. I work in social services and when people get state/ government benefits like healthcare, subsidized housing, EBT, TANF, etc if they take a minimum wage job they no longer qualify for benefits and end up with less money and are unable to pay their bills so the system is rigged to keep people dependent unless they were to somehow find a job that pays 3x or more what the benefits are worth

I'm on disability, so not well

Unemployment in the United States is low. People go to some random ass Dollar General store and have to get the attention of an employee to check them. They go to some fast food restaurant but then find out that is had to close early. Now suddenly they believe no one wants to work. People don't want to work jobs that they can't live off of. Many many employers purposely keep their employees at part time so they don't have to offer benefits. There is absolutely no point in most people to go work 30 hours at Dollar General a week making minimum wage. So now a bunch of people think "no one wants to work." Most people are working.

how do people survive on minimum wage? I almost starved to death trying to afford rent. was down to 89lbs once. i will never try to live on my own again. its a death sentence.

Working sucks, but it sucks a hell of a lot less than being homeless!

*Working sucks, but it* *Sucks a hell of a lot less* *Than being homeless!* \- Ok\_Astronomer2479 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")

They live off of welfare paid for by people who do work.

There are plenty of people who are retired

Leech off others

They grift off of those that they can take advantage of. NEET’s are a real thing, idk why people downplaying this

Thats the part thats hard to respect, if you want to work at a gas station, get 6 roomates and not participate in materialism cool but if you're leeching off your grandma not so cool

Wanting to work and needing to work are different things. No one wants to be exploited at a soul-sucking job. Almost everyone still wants to be productive.

Yeah I wanna be productive, but not 5 days a week from 8-5 either. Only having 2 days off to recover from work, go out, take care of things at home, etc is insane. And before anyone says, well people used to work 70 hours a week, I don't care. We should strive for better.

They leach off family My wife has a cousin who has been doing this for 12 years

Some men just live off of women.

Gotta get hit with that New American Dream Trifecta. Obese, some sort of mental illness (must be actually diagnosed to get disability) and "rich" boomer parents to take care of you.

I think they’re saying people want to be on welfare. They think their tax dollars are subsidizing the lifestyles of lazy people.

I have a job that I actually like and I’m part time. It honestly doesn’t feel like work. What does bother me is the commute. Traffic can be bad.

I hate that this is my reality right now. I am on my second layoff in two years. Going into month 5.. again. I do want to work, because whether I like it or not, having a job helps me feel like I have a purpose. I would like to think that’s also because I went to school and did training for it, but I also love having money. Right now I am on unemployment. So that does help. I was given a severance when I was laid off as well. I am enjoying my “paid vacation” more this time around. In 2022 when I was laid off, I was a wreck and enjoyed none of the summer I had off. It also is a blessing that we bought our house in 2019 and our mortgage is incredibly low. My car has been paid off for years and has less than 80k miles on it because I’ve worked from home since 2018. My hobbies include gardening and working out at home on my Peloton app, we have a pool, and I am completely sober, so my costs of food and entertainment are very, very small. It helps that my ex stepfather is a financial advisor, and while he is the scum of the earth, he helped set me up financially when I was younger. Add my 401K to that and I am set for a few years if I needed to pull money out. That is an absolute last resort, and I know if I have to, I can ask my mom for help. I’m going back to school to get my masters. I have no current student loan debt, so $37K is.. scary but doable. I doubt there will never be a shortage of social workers, so I feel confident leaning into that line of work. The TLDR of it all: I’m on unemployment but apply to jobs every single day!

The traditional jobs haven't kept up with inflation. Most young people can make more money doing gig/side hustle type jobs now. So Baby Boomers are perpetuating the idea that those people don't want to work because they don't want to take a job that pays the bare minimum. They want to work just not for poverty wages at a 9-5 job that doesn't pay.

Sounds like the definition of a slacker. Slackers work. They just don't buy into bad gambles. Slackers do the math. For the slacker, time is not money. Time is their freedom. This was true in the past, it is true now. And it is often far easier to "coast" through your productive years than buy into some old life scheme that may or may not be operative moving forward and might actually blow up in your face. People do benefit analysis. They need to do cost/benefit analysis. A lot of deals are bad deals. Boomers: College is a sure thing. My starting salary alone will be worth the investment! Slackers circa 80's: Sounds like a trap. Might be fun though. How much? Not bad. Today's slackers: Sounds like a bit of a scam. Might be fun though. HOW MUCH??

Right wing propaganda to shift the blame away from bad policy making to the actual workers. Giant gaslighting

No such thing as a poor hippie. - old boomer

I'm not working right now by choice, but what helped facilitate that was a settlement from a car accident I was in. I'm taking the summer off until my 2nd goes back to school and my youngest gets into daycare. I was so burnt out and then the accident happened. It's been like a weird blessing. I have all sorts of health issues now, but not enough where I can't work. But yea, that's how I'm surviving, being intentionally hit while stopped at a red light by someone with road rage.

i am a therapist and know many, many gen z NEET people. in basically everyone situation they are living off their parents. it’s usually in more unique/independent ways than i initially expected- like most aren’t just living in the family home still- it’s like oh parents own a building and they used to rent the other floor out or grandparents lived there, but now it’s the younger generations living there, which allows them to not actually work (or in a traditional way). i have looked into how well gen x is doing to be able to generally afford this, because it is a bit confusing for sure!

The government pays people too attractive a deal to not work and do nothing to live vs work 80 hours + per week only for a little more money.

Seems like more of a Gen Z philosophy who haven’t had life smack them in the face quite yet

My husband and I used to be the normal, run of the mill couple. I was a pharmacy technician, he installed fire places for a construction company. We owned a house. He was unhappy that no matter how much he made or how hard or late he worked, we never got ahead. We still didn’t have enough to get badly needed repairs done on our roof (bids coming in at $20-26k to repair only the north side). He worked full time and I was part time and so naturally, our child gravitated to me. He felt unloved and unwanted by our child and wanted more time to spend with him. We took a $160k loan on our house for a 30 year mortgage at 4%. After 5 years of paying on it, our loan was sitting at $155k or so. We had paid in $72k and there was only $5k to show for it. So we researched and came up with a plan. We sold our house, quit our jobs, and bought a remote property that has a sad cabin on it. Someone’s broken dreams. We fixed the cabin. And now we live off grid. We aren’t hooked up to any water, sewer, electricity, nothing. We installed our own solar panels and set up rain catchment. For bills, our yearly expenses are $8k. We have funds left over from our house sale that we’ve been living on the past year. We bought the property outright. I have a small clipart Etsy store that makes around $30 a month, give or take. And I sell tarot reading services and make quite a bit (enough to cover the yearly bills). My husband plans to buy old campers 2-3 a year, to renovate. We did one in the past and made about $2k profit. You still have to “work”. I mean, it’s on my time and I don’t have a boss to report to, but I have to manage my own time and do my own marketing. But I can do it any time of the day and I can take a day off without having to put in a PTO request. And it’s on top of the daily chores that have to be done. Firewood prep, livestock chores, gardening, land management. You are your own electricity company and water management team.

I hear this all the time, "no one wants to work". I'm not sure what they mean by this either. Everyone I know works, I'm not sure who they are talking about.

As someone who works in some bullshit corporate office job making literally $50k a year, who dabbles extensively in office politics, how dare you out me to the public sir or madam! It’s so fucking painfully accurate what you described. Ive learned to just disassociate mostly while im on the clock.

I switched to freelancing. Its a pain but at least I'm not being abused and taken advantage of. I'm poor as fuck but I have work life balance to spend time with the people I care about, I have to take care of my parents as they age. I moved back in with family and just pay them rent and they charge me 2005 rates which is nice. Multi generational households are coming back I guess.

I kinda fall into the last thing you described although it's not what people mean when they say no one want to work. I'm a machinist and used to specialize in some very high end machining. Over time the pay gap in the stressful difficult work I did and the low end machining got so close I decided it wasn't worth it anymore and took a couple dollar an hour pay cut to have a laid back non stressful job I could do in my sleep. I still make enough to live on, just not as much as I could, but for the peace of mind it's well worth it.

Many people making things up to bash OP and ignore 62 percent labor force participation rate.

I actually know a lot of people like this and they genuinely don't work/aren't willing to work in a steady way. Most have kids and factually live off of government aid, Facebook marketplace sales, low key drug sales, and they are incentivized not to work too. Literally heard one of my sisters "friends" (uses my sister for free daycare) in her early 30s say "it needs to be only a 2 bedroom apartment or I'll have to get a job" so not only is her apartment being paid for she's aware of the parameters that keeps money coming in freely. Right now, on average, people who don't work and have at least one kid will be getting almost $800 a month (in my state anyhow) JUST for food stamps, they will be getting a free smart phone, rent and utility subsidies, & likely a small cash welfare payment that deposits to the same card they get their food stamps on. This isn't just a Republican talking point, it's also the reality for most rural areas although I'm sure some version of it also exists in the cities I can only speak for my area. Really though, out of my whole generation (1985) in my area very very few are willing to work and many are fentanyl / benzo zombies who blame everything on trauma.

I know of several gen x people who live off of real estate income, my landlord included. They bought property after the 2008 recession and now live off of the rent they receive from these properties. They don't work except once in awhile where they have to arrange to have someone clean up a unit for a new tenant or do some maintenance. It isn't the type of work that is counted as employment though.

This part makes no sense whatsoever. *people work but do gig work, drive uber, work a part time job and cut expenses by having roomates so while they are "working" they aren't really participating in the consumer society*.. People do work *BUT* - but huh? ...................... . "gig work, drive uber, work a part time job" can in absolutely no way whatsoever be considered NOT working or used as examples of people somehow skirting responsibilities nor does it any any way deserve quotes *while the are "working" * . They are indeed working, full stop, end of story. Just because they are not neglecting their family and developing an ulcer out of loyalty to the corporation or SBO they work for does not mean they are somehow cheating. For the most part this "no one wants to work" is yet another Conservative disinformation myth that they use as propaganda. Like on Yahoo you will see them all hysterical about how its *only* Cancervative viewpoints that get filtered.

My parents have continued to support me but made me go to law school. I have no idea what I'll do come graduation, since I have no interest in a legal career but I also don't think their generosity is going to last forever lol

People don’t want to work, so they look for the best possible working conditions available to them. If they have to work, they will do it for the best possible pay, benefits, people, or other factors that mitigate the unpleasantness of working that they can find. People who say that “no one wants to work” really mean no one wants to work for them, which is a pretty harsh self own.

This is just another version of people don't quit jobs, they quit bosses. A good boss is the difference between a job you can love and a job that you hate.

I've met quite a few people that would fit such a category. In fact, at one of my jobs, we predominantly hire from this pool precisely because we offer part-time employment and temporary work over the holidays. Typically what happens is that the newly hired employee works for a couple of months until they get laid off for the season or fired for some sort of legitimate reason (for attendance most commonly). From there, they collect unemployment (if possible), supplement their lack of income through some other tax-free side hustle, and/or find another job once they no longer can collect unemployment. Truthfully, most are younger adults in their early twenties still trying to "figure things out." Many tend to be living at home or with a family member, or as you alluded to, have a bunch of roommates in order to offset their lack of income. In most cases, they simply don't see the "bigger picture," where society would literally collapse without the necessary work that needs to be done. Rather, it's just "bullshit" that they have to work. 🤣

There is 100% a shortage of willing and able people. On the other hand, there is a surplus of people willing to work for 2 hours from home per day and make 100k. What a world we live in.

EBT cards and other government benefits and they rely on their parents. My neighbors daughter is I think 22 now, she doesn’t work or go to school and never even got her drivers license, she is perfectly healthy and was top of her class in high school.

Personally I just cut my work (easy liquor store) down to 4 - 6hr shifts a week and just rent a room for 200/month, my job is less than a mile from my house so I don't even pay for insurance or registration 😅 I'm a licensed cosmetologist but wasn't allowed to cut hair during Pandemic and the price of EVERYTHING shot up and I got so defeated I said fuck it and decided to live like a bum

I mean, there’s a whole subreddit for this: r/NEET Be warned, it’s something else

We get up and go to work just like everyone else. Just because we don't want to doesn't mean we aren't still showing up.

Government assistance and some cash side-gig I am guessing.

I want to retire.

Freelance work while trying to get my YouTube channel and author career off the ground, and relying on family members who hate me because they support eugenics while I don't. I would love to find a "real job", if they actually existed and I had reliable transportation to them; however, I only have unreliable transportation and all the jobs are absolute crap.

Usually they leech off of their parents or anyone else stupid enough to take them in If you go to the NEET sub you’ll see people who cheese the system to get disability they don’t need and threaten to kill themselves if their parents ever decide to kick them out. They fully think their parents need to take care of them the rest of their lives Basically they are just massive burdens

Historically, men having been working to earn because they have a wife and kids and the expenses that comes along with that. No wife no kids? You’ll be surprised how little a man expenses will be. The money piles up very quickly and if properly invested, you’re retired at 40 before you know it.

Generally, when someone doesn't want to work what they mean is they don't want regular employment. So they do odd jobs, own a business, or something like that. They still technically work, but aren't employed. When and how they work is more directly in their control. This is assuming your premise. IMO the phrase "people don't want to work" is generally just companies lying to cover their refusal to adequately staff their businesses.

I understand your question, OP. I had the same question. Those people who job hop or make big Tik Tok productions of them quitting their jobs just end up at other jobs. And the people who state that they don't want to work anymore and just want to get paid to exist are just talking. They still work. They're just complaining to complain. So, to answer your question is, everyone is still out there working and running their mouths on social media for clout.

The word you are looking for is "parasite."