White-collar workers got raises. Years later, they're stuck doing more for less

Employers stopped raising pay years ago. Economists trace the freeze to a pandemic hiring boom that companies are now correcting

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White-collar workers held the leverage in 2021. Companies chased talent with signing bonuses, remote-work perks, and raises bigger than anything the job market had produced in a decade. That leverage is gone now. Pay has stalled, job duties have widened, and for a growing share of workers, the role itself feels temporary.

The unemployment rate for tech workers hit 3.3% in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For managers and other white-collar professionals, it sat at 2.5%. Both rates are climbing even as companies add jobs.

Unemployment and hiring can rise together because the supply of job seekers is growing faster than the supply of jobs. And that imbalance traces back to a boom that was never built on solid ground. Pay that high and hiring that aggressive can't last, and the market has been correcting back toward something more durable ever since.

Cheap money and the origins of the white-collar boom

In an emergency response to the pandemic, the Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate to nearly zero on March 15, 2020. The effect on hiring took time to show up. When it did, it was immense.

In November 2021, a record 4.5 million workers walked away from their jobs, betting they could find a better one, and with openings at a series high of 11.4 million that December, the odds were in their favor. Tech companies and other knowledge-related fields were outbidding each other........

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