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Finding a job is hard right now. To cope, Gen Zers are documenting the reality of unemployment in 2025. You look sadder,” one TikTok post reads, flipping the recent You look happier trend on its head (in which people respond with the real reason theyre smiling a little more than usual). @yasamelon “Thanks, yeah, I’ve been laid off since September, applied to 700+ jobs, 30+ interviews, no offers, and rent is due again,” the post continues. The video has over 783,000 views, with many commenting they are in the same boat. Being unemployed in 2025 means spending half the day on Linkedin and the other half walking around town looking for a Waymo to run me over, the same creator jokes in another video. @yasamelon everybody say waymoooo original sound – Yas For many job seekers, their unemployed status is not for lack of trying. Some are busy testing out different job hacks and documenting the results. Others are posting day-in-the-life videos of unemployment, highlighting the harsh reality of searching for a job in the current climate. I think the new Hot Girl Summer is actually gonna be Unemployed Girl Summer, one TikToker says. Even the recruiters are weighing in. I am still shocked how many people in my comment sections are underestimating how cooked the corporate job market is, one recruiter explains in a recent video, currently at 617,400 views. Ive literally never seen candidates struggle as much as they are right now. @the_realest_recruiter It seriously blows my mind #jobmarket #jobsearch original sound – TheRealestRecruiter The comment section is filled with those sharing their own experiences and frustrations with the job search and current hiring processes. Ive come to the conclusion that most job board sites are nothing but data-mining operations, one person writes. I had to send in my birth chart (wish I was kidding), comments another. The data backs it up: It hasnt been this hard for Americans to find work since 2021, according to CNN. While new data released Thursday showed that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, the number of recurring claims made by people who already have filed for unemployment rose to their highest level since November 2021. Rather than conducting mass layoffs, employers are reining in hiringleaving unemployed job seekers with the short straw. CNN also reported that people are staying unemployed for about six months on average, with long-term unemployment (27 weeks or more) nearing a three-year high. Faced with such dire circumstances, some are choosing to look for a silver lining. As one TikTok post reminds: Enjoy your unemployed era while you still can. Or at least try to.
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At its heart, pizza is deceptively simple. Made from just a few humble ingredientsbaked dough, tangy sauce, melted cheese, and maybe a few toppingsit might seem like a perfect candidate for the kind of mass-produced standardization that defines many global food chains, where predictable menus reign supreme. Yet, visit two pizzerias in different towns, or even on different blocks of the same town, and youll find that pizza stubbornly refuses to be homogenized. We are researchers working on a local business history project that documents the commercial landscape of Gainesville, Florida, in the 20th and 21st centuries. As part of that project, weve spent a great many hours over the past two years interviewing local restaurant owners, especially those behind Gainesvilles independent pizzerias. What weve found reaffirms a powerful truth: Pizza resists samenessand small pizzerias are a big reason why. Why standardized pizza rose but didnt conquer While tomatoes were unknown in Italy until the mid-16th century, they have since become synonymous with Italian cuisineespecially through pizza. Pizza arrived in the U.S. from Naples in the early 20th century, when Italian immigration was at its peak. Two of the biggest destinations for Italian immigrants were New York City and Chicago, and today each has a distinctive pizza style. A New York slice can easily be identified by its thin, soft, foldable crust, while Chicago pies are known for deep, thick, buttery crusts. After World War II, other regions developed their own types of pizza, including the famed New Haven and Detroit styles. The New Haven style is known for being thin, crispy, and charred in a coal-fired oven, while the Detroit style has a rectangular, deep-dish shape and thick, buttery crust. By the latter half of the 20th century, pizza had become a staple of the American diet. And as its popularity grew, so did demand for consistent, affordable pizza joints. Chains such as Pizza Hut, founded in 1958, and Papa Johns, established in 1984, applied the model pioneered by McDonalds in the late 1940s, adopting limited menus, assembly line kitchens, and franchise models built for consistency and scale. New technologies such as point-of-sale systems and inventory management software made things even more efficient. As food historian Carol Helstosky explains in Pizza: A Global History, the transformation involved simplifying recipes, ensuring consistent quality, and developing formats optimized for rapid expansion and franchising. What began as a handcrafted, regional dish became a highly replicable product suited to global mass markets. Today, more than 20,000 Pizza Huts operate worldwide. Papa Johns, which runs about 6,000 pizzerias, built its brand explicitly on a promise rooted in standardization. In this model, success means making pizza the same way, everywhere, every time. So what happened to the independent pizzerias? Did they get swallowed up by efficiency? Not quite. Chain restaurants dont necessarily suffocate small competitors, recent research shows. In fact, in the case of pizza, they often coexist, sometimes even fueling creativity and opportunity. Independent pizzeriasthere are more than 44,000 nationwidelean into what makes them unique, carving out a niche. Rather than focusing only on speed or price, they compete by offering character, inventive toppings, personal service, and a sense of place that chains just cant replicate. A local pizza scene: Creativity in a corporate age For an example, look no farther than Gainesville. A college town with fewer than 150,000 residents, Gainesville doesnt have the same culinary cachet as New York or Chicago, but it has developed a unique pizza scene. With 13 independent pizzerias serving Neapolitan, Detroit, New York, Mediterranean styles, and more, hungry Gators have a plethora of options when craving a slice. What makes Gainesvilles pizza scene especially interesting is the range of backgrounds its proprietors have. Through interviews with pizzeria owners, we found that some had started as artists and musicians, while others had worked in engineering or educationand each had their own unique approach to making pizzas. The owner of Strega Nonas Oven, for example, uses his engineering background to turn dough-making into a science, altering the proportions of ingredients by as little as half of a percent based on the season or even the weather. Visitors to Satchels Pizza get a creative welcome. [Photo: courtesy of the authors] Satchels Pizza, on the other hand, is filled with works made by its artist owner, including mosaic windows, paintings, sculptures, and fountains. Gainesvilles independent pizzerias often serve as what sociologists call third placesspaces for gathering that arent home or work. And their owners think carefully about how to create a welcoming environment. For example, the owner of Scuola Pizza insisted the restaurant be free of TVs, so diners can focus on their food. Squarehous Pizza features a large outdoor space: an old, now repurposed school bus outfitted with tables and chairs to dine in, and a stage for live music. Squarehouse also is known for its unusual toppings on square, Detroit-style piesfor example, the Mariah Curry, topped with curry chicken or cauliflower, and coconut curry sauce. It refreshes its specialty menus every semester or two. While the American pizza landscape may be shaped by big brands and standardized menus, small pizzerias continue to shine. Gainesville is a perfect example of how a local pizza scene in a small Southern college town can be unique, even in a globalized industry. Small pizzerias dont just offer foodthey offer a flavorful reminder that the marketplace rewards distinctiveness and local character, too. Paula de la Cruz-Fernández is a cultural digital collections manager at the University of Florida. Avi Ackerman is a researcher at Inquire Capitalism UF at the University of Florida. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Hiding your address, phone number, and other details is easier than you might think.
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