The hottest Labor Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Links 814 How strong is the US labour market? From GENIUS to CLARITY. Palantir's bonkers valuation & who is mounting drone strikes on Indian separatists in Myanmar?

Chartbook • 500 implied HN points • 30 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. The US job market is facing more job losses than gains, which suggests that a recession might be on the way.
  2. Palantir's valuation is considered extremely high, raising questions about its financial stability and future performance.
  3. There are reports of drone strikes targeting Indian separatists in Myanmar, indicating ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region.

I'm Sick Of Uber's Shit

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 73 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
💼 Business Labor
  1. Uber’s reliability has collapsed — drivers often accept rides and then don’t move, and quoted wait times regularly stretch to 10–20 minutes.
  2. The app is stuffed with confusing tiers and volatile pricing that feel like aggressive upsells and hostage negotiation rather than clear options.
  3. Driver morale and cost-cutting have degraded the in-car experience, risking customers switching to taxis or competitors.

Nativism is going to wreck the tech economy

Alex's Personal Blog • 164 implied HN points • 14 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Labor
  1. Nativism in U.S. politics may hurt the tech economy by limiting high-skill immigration, which is crucial for growth and innovation. This could lead to tech companies hiring less domestic talent and more workers from abroad.
  2. AI is affecting the job market negatively, especially for new graduates. More entry-level jobs are disappearing, making it harder for young people to find work and pay off student loans.
  3. Despite concerns about economic weakness, investment interest in tech startups, especially in AI, remains strong. Companies like Cursor are raising large amounts of capital, indicating that the tech sector may still have opportunities for growth.

Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #175

Creative Destruction • 34 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Labor
  1. The future feels closed and nostalgia rises because dominant narratives narrow what futures we can imagine, so we need to spot and widen the cracks that let new visions emerge.
  2. Game-theory and optimization logic drive many systems and tools today, crowding out cooperation and authenticity. That pressure also creates “reverse centaurs” where humans become appendages to machines instead of being truly augmented.
  3. Better paths exist: slow down consumption and shift from consuming to expressing, rebuild shared stories that organize attention and design, and use AI selectively for closed problems while keeping humans in creative, open-ended roles.
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In Defense of the Deindustrialization Narrative

Glenn Loury • 1329 implied HN points • 27 Aug 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. Deindustrialization has led to the loss of manufacturing jobs with wide-ranging effects on communities.
  2. Globalization, automation, and immigration are factors contributing to the decline in manufacturing employment.
  3. Manufacturing jobs have a higher economic impact compared to healthcare and retail jobs.

Top Links 782 America's largest firms employ fewer workers. Three housing crises not one. Less money for science and conscious walking.

Chartbook • 486 implied HN points • 29 Jun 25
💼 Business Labor
  1. Big companies in America are hiring fewer workers than before. This trend can change the job market.
  2. There are actually three different housing crises happening at the same time, affecting people's living situations.
  3. Funding for science is decreasing, and people are becoming less aware of their surroundings while walking.

Human Capital Hara-Kiri

Bet On It • 457 implied HN points • 30 Jun 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. In Japan, many highly skilled workers end up in low-skilled jobs because the competition for skilled work is so fierce. This means talented people might be doing jobs that don't match their abilities.
  2. To change this, Japan could bring in more low-skilled immigrants. This would help create more higher-skilled job opportunities for the Japanese workforce.
  3. Even though some think low-skilled jobs are respected in Japan, many people secretly wish for better, more suitable positions that match their talents.

I keep overrating intelligence

Sex and the State • 19 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Labor
  1. People working in service jobs often show more intelligence and skill than people assume.
  2. Switching from a corporate career into the service industry can reveal and correct false assumptions about who is smart or capable.
  3. Feeling surprised or embarrassed by those assumptions is a useful prompt to notice and adjust your own biases about coworkers.

Top Links 768 Here come the robots. Truck parking & Walt Whitman as "self-fashioning vector of the spirit of the age".

Chartbook • 429 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. There are new ideas about robots taking over jobs, especially in trucking. This could change how we think about work and technology.
  2. Walt Whitman is being seen as a symbol of individual expression and identity in today's world. His ideas about self-fashioning relate to how people view themselves now.
  3. The impact of tariffs and factory jobs assumes there are enough workers to fill those roles. This might not be true, given current labor shortages.

no. 74: double starching

let them eat cake • 678 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
🍲 Food & Drink Labor
  1. Cooking remains a mostly opaque activity to cooks, and even though there are scientific explanations, many cultural practices still rely on mystical ideas like 'nafas' and 'sonmat.'
  2. The value of cooking and the labor involved is often underappreciated and not clearly priced, leading to conflicting claims about its worth in different contexts.
  3. Food and cooking challenge traditional economic frameworks, as the true cost is not accurately captured due to the unpaid labor that goes into preparing meals.

between neighbours I poem

Tumbleweed Words • 17 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
📚 Literature Labor
  1. Everyday work and routines—jobs, chores, dinners and weekend football—are what hold a neighbourhood together.
  2. People live close but separate, like siblings in a photo, watching from different windows while still sharing noise and looking out for each other.
  3. Adults in the community share care and responsibility for children, worrying about safety and sometimes stepping in for one another to keep things running.

Please stop overusing Baumol’s cost disease

Something to Consider • 59 implied HN points • 29 Jun 24
💼 Business Labor
  1. Baumol's cost disease is often misused to explain high costs; it doesn't make things unaffordable, just shifts what we spend on.
  2. This theory shows that wages can rise in unproductive areas, like music or certain services, because they adjust to wages in other sectors.
  3. If services like healthcare or education are getting more expensive, it might be because they're experiencing lower productivity, not because they're doomed to be unaffordable.

Training large language models on my loved ones' data

Reboot • 26 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Labor
  1. Expert data labelers produce the high-quality reasoning traces that power recent LLM advances, yet they work as precarious gig labor with opaque rules, unstable pay, and no real career path.
  2. AI companies capture huge value from this labor and then displace or sideline those workers as models learn to generate synthetic data, causing layoffs and downward pressure on wages.
  3. There are simple, practical protections that could help: portable credentials, transparency about how data is used, the ability for workers to communicate and appeal, and explicit credit or recognition for their contributions.

Candidates must promise, and deliver, family formation

Sex and the State • 38 implied HN points • 25 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. Low family formation among working-class, non-college people — especially men in unstable or low-paying jobs — is driving cultural and political shifts that benefit conservatives.
  2. Promises of good, stable jobs matter because steady employment makes men more likely to be seen as marriageable and supports family formation, while means-tested welfare can reduce the incentive to marry.
  3. To win back working-class voters outside high-opportunity cities, Democrats need to offer pathways to good jobs and family formation rather than only promoting welfare, and they should understand these voters' family-oriented motivations.

Shunto: Why 4-5% Headline Wage Hike Really Means 2-3%

Japan Economy Watch • 179 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
💼 Business Labor
  1. Headline wage hikes in Japan may seem high, like 4-5%, but they often translate to 2-3% for the entire labor force.
  2. The base pay increase is what directly impacts overall income, while seniority raises have a more limited effect.
  3. Despite the impressive headline numbers, real wages in Japan have fallen due to inflation, with expectations for minimal improvements in the near future.

The Cooperatist Manifesto that inspired Mondragon

The Novelleist • 879 implied HN points • 14 Oct 24
💼 Business Labor
  1. José María Arizmendiarrieta believed workers should own their companies, promoting equality and fairness in the workplace. He thought that if workers shared in profits, it would create a better community for everyone.
  2. He emphasized the importance of education, encouraging workers to become skilled and capable of managing their own businesses. This led to the creation of cooperatives where everyone could participate and benefit.
  3. Arizmendiarrieta's model showed that creating jobs and opportunities for workers was essential for a prosperous society. He taught that by working together and sharing resources, communities could thrive without relying solely on government intervention.

Transcript: Tony Keller

Lean Out with Tara Henley • 235 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🌍 World Politics Labor
  1. In Canada, there has been a shift in the bipartisan, pro-immigration consensus, largely influenced by recent policy changes.
  2. The rapid population growth due to high immigration levels is putting pressure on infrastructure, housing, and business productivity in Canada.
  3. Addressing the skilled labor imbalance in immigration by recruiting high-skilled workers can help mitigate negative impacts on low-wage workers and the economy.

Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $72 Billion Deal

philsiarri • 44 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
💼 Business Labor
  1. Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery’s film, TV, and streaming assets (including HBO and DC) in a roughly $72 billion deal, creating a massive global streaming powerhouse.
  2. The merger will face heavy regulatory and union scrutiny and could be challenged over antitrust concerns, potential job losses, and reduced bargaining power for creators.
  3. If approved, consumers might need fewer subscriptions but could face higher prices and less content diversity, and the deal signals a major shift toward streaming dominance in Hollywood.

Chartbook 257: Santa's workshop economy and the question of unfree elvish labour.

Chartbook • 1716 implied HN points • 24 Dec 23
🎭️ Culture Labor
  1. The economics of Santa's workshop involves serious questions about sovereignty over the North Pole.
  2. There is debate about whether elvish labor in Santa's workshop can be considered as unfree or 'slave' labor.
  3. Reindeer play a crucial role in Santa's workshop economy, with an interesting fact being that all of Santa's reindeer with antlers are female.

Solo Exhibition in Philadelphia

Labor Intensive Art • 196 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Labor
  1. Tabitha Arnold's solo exhibition in Philadelphia at Swarthmore College's List Gallery includes unseen rugs and popular pieces like Whose Streets and Picket.
  2. The exhibit showcases 5 years of Arnold's textile work, featuring pieces from various residencies and highlighting themes of collective power and solidarity.
  3. The public reception and artist talk for the Workshop of the World exhibit will be held on January 25 at List Gallery, with the exhibit running from January 18 to February 25, 2024.

Time Off in Old Times

Maximum Progress • 314 implied HN points • 26 Oct 23
💾 History Labor
  1. Medieval peasants had more time off due to frequent breaks, long holidays, and seasonal slow downs in paid farm labor.
  2. Comparing work hours between medieval and modern times may not be accurate as the nature of work and leisure is different.
  3. Historia Civilis' analysis overlooks the harsh realities of medieval life, including torture by landlords and mandatory household chores.

The loop that shrank

Brave New Teams • 8 implied HN points • 31 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Labor
  1. Saying “human in the loop” is mostly a temporary grace period, not a permanent safeguard. As AI gets more reliable, humans will move from constant oversight to occasional checks or mere compliance roles.
  2. AI will automate routine white‑collar tasks and shrink entry‑level drudgery, pushing jobs toward exception‑handling and orchestration and reducing bargaining power for many workers. That shift will tend to concentrate economic gains with owners of data, compute, platforms, and distribution.
  3. Use the transition deliberately: build auditable, safe systems and clarify liability while policing platform chokepoints, and broaden who owns automation gains through stronger social insurance, profit‑sharing, pensions, or sovereign wealth mechanisms.

Alexandra Olympia Peristeraki: Enaboukaligala

Do Not Research • 139 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Labor
  1. The story features a 93-year-old retired factory worker from Greece reminiscing about his time in a highly toxic environment.
  2. Google Street View is used as a time capsule to show the remains of the worker's narration captured from 2009 to 2019.
  3. The narrative combines found footage from different industrial settings to showcase the struggles of the working class past and present.

Top Links 566 Power prices. How will migrants and smugglers respond to the Trump shock? Prisons of power and Keynes on fairy dust.

Chartbook • 429 implied HN points • 20 Nov 24
💼 Business Labor
  1. Cheap electricity is making US companies more competitive compared to businesses from other countries.
  2. There are interesting questions about how migrants and smugglers will react to recent changes in politics.
  3. Keynes' ideas are still being discussed today, especially regarding economic concepts like 'fairy dust.'

The week in US unions, February 19th-26th, 2023

Who Gets the Bird? • 255 implied HN points • 27 Feb 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. The ILR Labor Action Tracker's 2022 report is a must-read for anyone interested in the US union movement.
  2. Various strikes and negotiations are happening across different sectors and locations in the US.
  3. There are significant developments in internal union politics with upcoming elections, retirements, and new organizing efforts.

Three weeks in US unions, January 29th-February 19th, 2023

Who Gets the Bird? • 235 implied HN points • 20 Feb 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. Several long strikes in the US labor movement have ended or are nearing resolution.
  2. Various new strikes and labor actions are happening across different sectors, including transit, healthcare, and education.
  3. Significant developments are occurring in union organizing efforts, elections, and collective bargaining rights, showcasing a dynamic period in the US labor landscape.

🗽🧠 Pro-immigration policy and mutual brain gain: A Quick Q&A with … economist Gaurav Khanna

Faster, Please! • 365 implied HN points • 11 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. Immigration benefits workers in both the US and India. It leads to better job opportunities and innovation in both countries.
  2. Indian students often pursue IT skills to try for jobs in the US. Even those who don't make it can help grow India's own tech sector.
  3. The US gains when foreign students study there, even if they return home. Their presence supports local schools and boosts the economy.

Dirty Work: The Return of Blue Collar

State of the Future • 144 implied HN points • 04 Jun 25
💼 Business Labor
  1. AI is taking over many white-collar jobs, especially those that are routine and easily automated. Many of these roles aren't as valuable as we once thought.
  2. There are plenty of blue-collar jobs available that can provide real satisfaction and meaning. These jobs often require skills that AI cannot replicate.
  3. Blue-collar jobs are likely to gain more respect and higher status in the future. We should encourage young people to consider these careers now.

What is Your Life Worth?

Economic Forces • 9 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
💼 Business Labor
  1. People reveal how much they value life through choices like buying insurance, spending on health, and taking risky jobs, and economists use those choices to compute a "statistical value of life" (e.g., via wage premia).
  2. Empirical estimates place the statistical value of life in the millions of dollars and show it rising over time; as incomes and life expectancy rise, people tend to demand and pay more for safety.
  3. Price theory lets us put dollar values on non-market goods, so up-to-date value-of-life estimates are essential for sensible policy and cost–benefit decisions about safety and regulation.

The invisible hand screws up your regression

Economic Forces • 19 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
💼 Business Labor
  1. Because prices link firms, workers, and markets, difference-in-differences estimates pick up relative changes across units (the slope) but miss common, economy-wide level shifts that get absorbed by fixed effects — the “missing intercept.”
  2. Treatment spillovers mean control groups are almost never untouched, so naively scaling a micro DiD coefficient up to an aggregate shock can be very misleading; the true aggregate effect could be much smaller or much larger than the naive calculation.
  3. To learn the aggregate or policy-relevant effect you need economic structure or extra identifying assumptions; techniques like synthetic DiD fix pre-trends but cannot recover common, market-wide shocks without a structural model.

Lessons learned from Ford's assembly line

Jon’s Newsletter • 119 implied HN points • 14 Jan 24
💼 Business Labor
  1. Ford's assembly line made car production much faster, cutting down assembly time from 12 hours to just 90 minutes. This allowed Ford to produce cars more efficiently.
  2. By dropping the price of the Model T from $850 to under $300, Ford made cars affordable for many more people. This helped him sell over 15 million Model Ts by 1927.
  3. Henry Ford also raised workers' wages to $5 a day, which was double the average wage. This not only reduced turnover but also allowed workers to buy the cars they made.

The problem with AI misalignment

venturecommune • 196 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Labor
  1. The Misalignment Museum is a new art installation addressing the problem with AI misalignment.
  2. The misalignment problem in AI focuses on compatibility of human values with superintelligent AI values.
  3. Analysis of AI technology should consider social relations and ownership to understand its impact.

Shortsighted tech bros seek to leave American STEM talent even further behind.

The Dossier • 277 implied HN points • 26 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. There is a belief that the U.S. needs to bring in foreign workers to fill tech jobs because there aren't enough qualified Americans. This argument has sparked a lot of discussion and pushback.
  2. Many Americans are struggling because our education system often overlooks local talent in favor of foreign students for prestigious programs. This makes it tough for U.S. students to find good jobs in tech.
  3. Some argue that America should prioritize its own citizens in tech hiring, as other countries have successfully developed their tech sectors without relying heavily on foreign immigrants.

H-1B is about corruption and fraud, not ideology

The Dossier • 272 implied HN points • 30 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Labor
  1. The H-1B visa program has a lot of corruption and fraud, rather than just being about helping skilled workers. It often benefits middleman agencies that control the hiring process.
  2. Most H-1B visa holders come from only a few countries, especially India and China, which shows a lack of diversity in skilled labor coming to the U.S.
  3. Many of the workers brought in through the H-1B program may not have the right skills or cultural fit for American workplaces, causing problems for both employers and American job seekers.

Abe Left Japan’s Economy Worse Than He Found It

Japan Economy Watch • 519 implied HN points • 13 Sep 22
💼 Business Labor
  1. Shinzo Abe failed to improve Japan's economy during his tenure as Prime Minister, falling short of his promises and leaving living standards on a decline
  2. Abe's economic policies led to suppressed GDP growth, low wages, and a shift in national income from people to corporations
  3. Despite claimed achievements like 'womenomics' and ending deflation, Abe's tenure was marked by hollow measures and missed opportunities for real structural economic reforms