Feeling disappointed by your job or job search? Two recent films might strike a chord.
Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” and Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” imagine what happens when workers in bad situations, whether a stagnant job market or a toxic workplace, are pushed to their limits, with murderous consequences. They offer cathartic, if violent, outlooks on the worker angst and desperation in the zeitgeist. Part dark comedy and part horror, they touch on perennial workplace anxieties but are particularly timely now.
Sluggish hiring means many employees feel stuck, and many job seekers are struggling to find work. Last year, U.S. employers added only 181,000 jobs, compared to 1.46 million in 2024, making it the worst year for hiring since 2020, and the worst since 2003 outside of a recession. As of January, 1 in 4 unemployed people, roughly 1.8 million Americans, have been looking for work for more than six months, according to BLS data.
Meanwhile, those with jobs are anxious about losing them amid economic uncertainty, AI adoption, and layoffs. Job cuts announced in January hit their highest monthly total to start a year since 2009, according to a report from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And the quits rate of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs — which can reflect their degree of confidence in the job market — stayed relatively low at around 2% throughout 2025.
