#64: 7.5% Inflation, Food Industry Turns To Temps, What Does Gen-Z Want?

Is it really a raise if inflation is higher? What's the difference between a freelancer and temp worker?

Shoutout to this week’s special guest Emily Leach, founder of Freelance Business Week, the Freelance Conference, and honestly, her title should be something like “Premier Bad Ass Of Everything Freelance”.

---

☕️ Overheard At The Coffee Shop

• Beefy looking man: “Yeah I got an 8% raise”

• Less beefy, Patagonia wearing man: “Dude, inflation’s at 7.5”

• Beefy looking man: “Well I feel played”

---

Important Updates

For full analysis of each update, join our leader portal. In order to maintain independence, the Human Cloud is 100% leader funded. We don’t take payment from advertisers or sponsors. We make money from our leader portal, investments, and partnering with select leaders.

1. 💩 INFLATION: 7.5% annual gain (ouch), while the average US household is spending an extra $276/month due to inflation, according to a Moody’s analysis.

   • 💩💩 YIKES: Real hourly earnings down 1.7% (thanks to inflation)

     

   • 💩💩💩 Be ready for a recession…last time inflation was this high (early 1980s), Fed Chair Paul Volcker cranked up interest rates then a recession hit.

2. 👀 LABOR SHORTAGE: Food plants, grocery stores, and farms companies turn to temp workers.

   • While thinking in the right direction, it’s usually quicker to hire and more cost efficient to hire freelancers. What’s the difference? We’ll dive deep for our paid leaders.

3. 😂 LOLS: Mask mandates are lifted, according to CNN, “local mask mandates are disappearing as quickly as toilet paper did from grocery stores shelves two years ago”. What changed (not sure the science changed overnight)? What’s the economic impact?

4. GEN-Z: 25% will switch jobs this year. What are they looking for? According to a LinkedIn survey:

   1. 80% want a job that better aligns with their values

   2. 76% want more opportunities to learn and practice new skills

   3. 61% want more chances for upward mobility at work

---

Luca Pic of the Week

See y’all next week!

The Matthew’s

---

🚀 For Paid Subscribers 🚀

Our Take On Each Update

Reply to this email and we’ll answer within 48 hours.

1. We need to assume inflation, the great resignation, and the labor shortage will only increase in the next 1-3 years. Under this assumption, small businesses with high churn, high fixed costs, and low customer retention will disproportionately be affected.

   • Solution:

     • Prioritize employee retention, specifically scrappy, low cost/effort yet high return activities. Our episode with Lesa Edwards provides great frameworks for this.