The American job market is flashing red signals that nobody's talking about enough.

Here's what the numbers actually show: Employers across the US announced 1,170,821 job cuts in just the first eleven months of this year. That's a 54% jump compared to last year. The last time we saw layoffs at this scale? 2020. Yeah, that year.

Think about what this means beyond the headlines. When companies start slashing headcount at crisis-era levels, it's not just about unemployment stats. Consumer confidence tanks. Spending power evaporates. Risk appetite across all asset classes—stocks, bonds, crypto—starts shifting fast.

The macro backdrop matters more than most traders realize. Rate decisions, inflation fears, and liquidity flows don't exist in a vacuum. They're all connected to this: whether people have jobs and paychecks to deploy into markets.

We're watching a slow-motion economic shift unfold. The question isn't if it'll impact your portfolio. It's how much, and how soon.