Savings are also dwindling due to increasing white collar layoffs across all sectors. Google layoffs. Read the recent articles. The numbers are staggering.
With LI premium you can also see total number of applications for open roles, many have 1,500+ plus applicants per job post. If a white collar worker lands a job, they’re going to possibly be taking a lower salary than a prior role.
Right now this segment (has traditionally been immune from downturns) is treading water with savings, and soon it’s going to hit where they can’t pay their loans. Those defaults will start to hit financial institutions significantly. If you look across banks, you can see most are preparing for the hit with expense reductions through our own layoffs and increasing capital reserves. The 3.8% unemployment rate is deceiving since blue collar jobs haven’t been hit but white collar is being impacted instead.
Why is this a big deal? That segment has more savings they’re burning through, larger mortgages, higher credit card balances, more auto loans, etc. That means when it is hitting banks early next year. it’s really going to impact us. It’s a smaller segment of customers, but the charge-off exposure is huge.
The economy is not sound.