For the third consecutive month, US job creation has beaten expectations. The headline number looks robust. There is just one problem: we are mostly hiring people to serve nachos to tourists.
The hospitality sector added jobs at a pace that would make any labor economist weep with joy — if they were not also weeping because manufacturing employment is contracting, wage growth is lagging inflation by a country mile, and consumer debt has hit levels last seen right before things got very bad.
But sure, let us celebrate. The World Cup is coming to American soil in 2026, and apparently that is enough to convince policymakers and financial media that the economy is not slowly cannibalizing itself. Hotels are hiring. Restaurants are staffing up. Event venues are preparing for the influx. It is real economic activity. It is also temporary activity — the kind that evaporates the moment the tournament ends and the tourists go home.
What makes this genuinely farcical is the contrast. While hospitality employment surges, we are watching tech layoffs accelerate, commercial real estate implode, and credit card delinquencies tick upward. The jobs that are being created are disproportionately low-wage, seasonal, and offer minimal benefits. They are not the kind of work that allows someone to build wealth or weather the next recession.
So yes, unemployment numbers look fine. People are working. They are just working in jobs that will not exist in four months, earning wages that do not keep pace with rent, and propping up economic statistics that obscure a much uglier reality underneath.
The snacks are real. The dream is the part we should worry about.