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A sideways look at economics

Just not feeling it? The vibecession explained: it’s the jobs, stupid

1 May 2026|

Do you know anyone who has suffered, or is suffering, from long COVID? I do, and it can be a very serious matter. In a broader, economic sense, though, we all are. Since COVID, economic sentiment across most of the developed world has been consistently in mild recessionary territory: the first time we have seen that pattern since we started collecting the data in the early noughties. This protracted ‘vibecession’ is not about growth, which is fairly strong in the US at least. Nor is it about financial markets which, until the war in Iran, were thriving, especially in the US. So what is it about? Jobs.

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