The industrious ones work under the table for cash. But maybe they would rather just sell dope our rob houses… which actually is probably harder than just working an honest job. I blame the liberals and progressives for instilling the idea that physical labor is slavery. The older I get the the more I enjoy physical labor. My parents were snobby liberals that felt physical labor was for the uneducated unwashed masses. That was a lie. It is actually liberating and great for the mind and body. It feels great accomplishing building or growing things.
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It’s crushed the restaurant industry that everyone pays with CC now, so tips are reported. It used to be easy to claim lower income and get the welfare benefits. In WA, we don’t have to file state income taxes, so they just call an employer to verify income eligibility. There are plenty of small businesses that lie and say their employees are below the threshold.
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I agree on many points with you guys.
However physical labor can be done only by the fit and the young.Maybe more automation is needed to attract workers.
The physical labor isn’t THAT intense. We have far super power tools for everything compared to 50 years ago. We probably just need people to stop being so lazy.
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I work harder than people one third my age because I enjoy it. Too bad the liberals bred the Yankee work ethic out of America. In fact the Black Smithsonian calls that work ethic racist. We are now a country of wimps and whiners. Thank god immigrants are not that way.
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If you stand with a sign for $35/hour on the border you can both be a darling of the liberals and get the best among the migrants. Win win 
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Facebook, Microsoft pulling out of more Seattle-area offices
In the latest sign of change in the tech sector — and softness in the office market here — Facebook parent Meta and Microsoft are separately vacating office buildings in Seattle and Bellevue.
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I work near the Federal Courthouse and Amazon. Gone are lunchtime crowds. Gone are virtually all the nearby restaurants. Gone are the food trucks. The hotel across the street is still closed. My building is half vacant. Most businesses are adopting hybrid or work from home models. The typical service business employing professionals is moving to hotelling type spaces that are shared and are working in office anywhere from never, to 2-3 days a week. We are talking about a 40% decrease at least in demand by current businesses, before we address large layoffs. Office building owners and brokers like to avoid telling the truth. My eyes don’t lie sadly.
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Ditto for Austin DT. Companies are reducing their footprint in DTs.
Read somewhere, worst hit is SF.
Now SF homeless and druggies can fill in the deficit in taxes that the evil corporations and high paying techies will not pay.
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That’s a big problem for the urban core. Worker foot traffic slowly resumed in 2022, but remains less than half pre-pandemic levels, according to the Downtown Seattle Association, which represents 1,700 businesses, nonprofits and residents.
The association estimates that Seattle’s core is about half office space, making it less exposed to remote work than cities like San Francisco and Boston that have a larger concentration of offices. But reviving local businesses will still require persuading more people to resume commuting, said Jon Scholes, the association’s president and chief executive officer. He’s hopeful companies recognize the importance of bringing workers to the office.
“We’re in a period of a lot of reevaluation, and companies are changing their tunes on remote work,” Scholes said. “There’s sort of a standoff and stare-down, where employees are saying ‘I’m not coming back in at all because I don’t want to go back to the way it was.’”
Amazon, Microsoft Job Cuts Deal Another Blow to Ailing Seattle
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That trend reflected many companies allowing workers to stay remote, along with concerns over affordability, said Walter Schwarm, chief demographer at the California Department of Finance, which released the report.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-population-falls-to-lowest-level-in-over-a-17744210.php
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Slow Burn. RE will follow.
Still in flux. Don’t believe the conclusion of the article.
Essentially, swinging between more WFH to more in office. Not stabilize yet.