If I had to pick one image this week to describe the US labor market in 2025, it would be a server that looks smooth from the outside: green lights on, dashboard says “operational”, stable ping - but open the lid and the CPU is red-hot at 95°C, fans screaming at 10.000 RPM, and RAM maxed out handling a pile of unoptimized tasks. Official data still looks beautiful like a system check: unemployment ~4%, net hiring positive, job openings still in the millions, “system stable”. But real life feels like standing next to that server: you hear the fan whine, smell slightly burnt metal, and you know - something's wrong, even if the screen still shows green.
Wages rising but not keeping up with housing prices, mobility closing like a hung Chrome tab, entry-level accounts locked, hiring freeze spreading like an unpatched bug, and office workers like running 20 tabs multitasking while the system only handles 8. No one “shutdown” en masse, but everyone feels “thermal throttling” - the future throttled bit by bit.
AI doesn't create a job apocalypse immediately; it's like a background script, not breaking the system in one or two days, but silently eating RAM, hogging CPU, and making every task heavier. And in 2025, Americans aren't unemployed en masse - they're just living in an economy that's throttling down, running forever without hitting the upgrade threshold.
And right in that “machine still running but about to choke” state, the most important question of 2025 is no longer: “Will the labor market collapse?”
The right question is: “Where is the system overloading, and which layer will overheat first?”
Because if you dig into each log file - layoffs, hiring, churn, wage growth, job openings - you'll see a very clear pattern: the US economy isn't crashing, it's throttling.
And this week, Viethustler will open up each layer of this system with you - like an engineer dissecting an overheating server - to see:
What is the real 2025 layoff wave? Restructuring, over-hiring, or AI-washing?
Why is the labor market “soft but not breaking”? Hiring still positive, but churn slow, mobility jammed.
Why are job openings dropping sharply but not causing a recession? Demand for new hires disappears before layoff demand increases.
Why does AI “talk louder than it acts”? AI's real impact in 2025 isn't cutting people - it's locking the entry-level door.
Why do people feel worse even though the data is still good?Real wage eroded, career paths sealed, and society entering “psychological recession”.
And finally: 2025 isn't a job apocalypse - it's a talent apocalypse.
AI doesn't eliminate jobs, it eliminates old skills; doesn't fire people, but locks the door to newcomers.
All of that creates the most characteristic picture of the US labor market in 2025: a system still running, but heating up in a way that anyone who's sat in front of an overloaded server understands - it's not dead yet, but if not upgraded, it will throttle itself to death.
