The Great Resignation Wasn’t the End — It Was the Beginning
In this Substack Live, Alex Randall Kittredge and John Bruton unpack the long tail of the Great Resignation — and why the real labor disruption may just be starting.
In 2021, nearly 4 million Americans per month quit their jobs. At the time, it felt like empowerment. Today, it looks more like a structural transition.
In this conversation, we cover:
* Why white-collar corporate jobs are down nearly 3% since 2023
* How payroll revisions suggest employment growth effectively stalled in 2025
* Why healthcare is carrying the job market
* How AI is collapsing 8 roles into 1
* Why Excel, PowerPoint, and analyst-level work are rapidly commoditizing
* The rise of the one- or two-person $80k–$200k business
* Why the “stable job” is becoming a myth
* How to think about portfolio careers in the post-AI economy
John shares a real example of using Claude Opus to replace what once required an entire department’s worth of analytical labor.
The implications are profound: lower costs, higher productivity — and fewer traditional roles.
John and Alex also discuss:
* Underemployment after the 2008 financial crisis
* Burnout among remaining corporate employees
* The psychological aftershock of pandemic isolation
* Creative destruction and what historically follows technological revolutions
* Whether the next five years produce mass displacement… or mass entrepreneurship
The core question:
If the corporate ladder isn’t coming back, what replaces it?
If you’ve been laid off, are stuck in a burnout‑inducing corporate role, or simply sense that the old 35‑years‑at‑one‑company path is gone for good, this episode offers both realism and a roadmap. You’ll hear concrete examples of how to leverage AI as leverage (not a threat), why “creator” is becoming a serious economic category, and how to start building a durable, post‑AI career with online platforms today.
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