Month: November 2025

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The economy’s not in a recession, but the job market sure feels like we’re recovering from one.

The labor market’s lack of movement, dubbed a “Great Freeze,” is becoming reminiscent of job availability following the 2008 financial crisis, writes BI’s Madison Hoff.

The hiring rate in August was just 3.2%, a big drop off from the 4.6% rate in late 2021 as the economy was reopening. The last time hiring was consistently that low was in the early 2010s when the jobs market was still recovering from the Great Recession.

The silver lining is that unemployment has remained relatively low, especially compared to the recovery from the Great Recession. But the unique setup of having both a low hiring rate AND unemployment still presents a few problems.

First, it means people are staying put, or “job hugging.” It’s reminiscent of the current housing market, where homeowners who might want to sell their current home are refusing to do so because they’re locked into an ultra-low rate. (Must be nice!)

There are also the youngsters to consider. For those of us with a job, the Great Freeze is manageable, albeit annoying. But many recent college grads don’t have that same benefit, and this spring will bring a whole new crop looking to enter the workforce.

Finally, there are the broader implications of what enables a low-hiring, low-unemployment environment to even exist. For some companies, the promise of AI efficiencies could be giving them pause about staffing up.

If you’re hoping to get some sympathy from the higher-ups, think again. CEOs are the one group that isn’t holding onto jobs, writes BI’s Tim Paradis.

It’s not all bad news.

Some hiring is still taking place. And if anyone knows who is on the hunt for workers, it’s recruiters.

Lucky for you, we’ve done some of the legwork. With the help of Plan-A Insights, BI compiled a list of the top 750 recruiting firms in the US.

These recruiters cover a wide range of industries. The list was compiled using a survey of approximately 22,000 professionals who evaluated these firms on several key factors. (If you’re really interested in the methodology, we break it all down.)

Still, maybe you’re just burned out from the corporate life (or not even looking to get started in it). One of the benefits of the 2008 financial crisis was the innovation it inspired in some people. There’s no better motivation to start your own business than having no other options.

And, love it or hate it, AI has made it easier to spin up an idea that previously would have required more work.

If you’re going to go it alone, BI’s Kathleen Elkins has some good insight. She spoke to several successful entrepreneurs and business owners about how to get their idea off the ground.

• We sold our house with plans to put a mortgage-free manufactured home on my in-laws’ property.
• We’d planned to live in our trailer until the house was done, but we’ve faced many setbacks.
• After many months, we’re finally seeing progress on our new home.

In April 2024, my wife and I sold our 4,000-square-foot home in the small town of Concrete, Washington.

Then, we moved into the 23-foot trailer on my in-laws’ property with our teenage son, three English bulldogs, and a territorial iguana named Rawr.

This wasn’t some dreamy escape into the minimalist #vanlife trend. In reality, we were desperate to be free from a mortgage, and we wanted to live closer to my in-laws so we could assist them as they age.

Though our Concrete house once felt full of character and potential for endless renovations, it had become a burden, with ever-rising property taxes and insurance costs.

So, we made a plan: Use the funds from selling our house to build a modest detached accessory dwelling unit (DADU) on my in-laws’ 5-acre property in Arlington, Washington.

This way, we’d finally be able to live in a home mortgage-free.

During construction, we’d simply stay in the Forest River Evo trailer we’d bought a few years ago to use for camping trips. It seemed like a perfectly fine setup for just a few months, maybe four maximum, we thought.

However, this project began over 16 months ago, and we’re still not in our house.

The delays started piling up almost immediately

We purchased a manufactured home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms that falls within our county’s 1,200-square-foot DADU limit.

It turns out that buying the house was the easy part.

From there, we still had a lot of work to do — applying for a permit, scheduling a wetland survey of where we planned to build, testing the nearby well for contaminants, designing a septic system, and more.

Though we had some help from a contractor and other subcontractors, we felt like we got a lot of mixed messages about what needed to be done and in what order.

Ultimately, we had a lot to figure out on our own. Throughout the process, we became very familiar with local rules and the approval process for building in our county.

Still, progress seemed to move at a glacial pace, from dealing with delays from our septic designer to waiting for inspections for electrical, water, and the septic system.

However, the biggest hold-up to installing our manufactured home was the discovery of a new wetland on the property that became subject to regulation.

We needed to make corrections and changes before re-filing our permit, which alone delayed our project by five months.

Meanwhile, living in our trailer has been tougher than anticipated

While all of this was happening, we’ve been living in a tin can.

The small trailer has a slide-out for extra breathing room, but the space is still tight. Adding an extra-tall baby gate to keep our dogs from fighting only made it worse.

We have to basically pole vault back and forth over the things to move around the trailer.

Our son’s “room” is the casket-sized bottom bunk, while Rawr enjoys the upper tier with a view. The dining nook doubles as my writing workspace, but is now mostly taken up by our son’s gaming computer.

My poor wife has been relegated to the bed for everything from dinner to downtime.

Cooking gets interesting. We choose between microwaving, air-frying, or using the crockpot.

Precariously balancing plates on tiny counter edges or on top of the coffee pot makes for fun little wagers. Will our dinner hit the ground? How long will it take for the dogs to gobble it up? Many times it’s easier to just go out.

Regardless, we’ve adapted to never-ending trailer chores, glitchy WiFi, mentally defeated dogs, and all the rest.

We’re finally starting to see progress on the house — and we’ve learned so much

Our house was delivered in late June. Its two halves are now married together and stabilized with concrete blocks.

Septic, electrical, and interior work are underway, and the water line will soon be run to the existing well.

There’s still a lot of work to be done before it’s completely move-in-ready. However, over $275,000 later, we can finally see the shape of what’s ahead.

And what’s a few more months in the trailer? This extended camping experience has tested our marriage more than anything else in our 12 years together.

We’ve screamed at the Gods. We’ve shouted at each other. We’ve nearly become the Torrance family in “The Shining.”

If we had to do it again (never in a million years), we’d give ourselves a timeline of a year or two. We’d also be prepared to cover additional, unknown costs, like county recording fees and septic-system monitoring, beyond the general estimate provided by our contractor.

Still, we’re holding on to the dream of simplifying our lives and owning our home outright.

Staring across the property at our unfinished house is torture. But, we’re hopeful that when it’s complete, this nightmare we’ve been through will have been worth it.

Time will tell if we’ll ever be able to go camping again, though.