Karlee Rea had a gut feeling she was about to lose her job. In February, whispers spread among coworkers at LTK, a creator e-commerce platform where she had worked for nearly five years. The 26-year-old Dallas resident decided to document her daily routine in a vlog—only to discover her instincts were correct.
That morning, Rea was among the staff cuts LTK described as affecting a “low, single-digit percentage of [its] overall head count,” impacting roles from software engineers to creator-facing positions. She included the news in her vlog, reflecting on her career trajectory.
“This was my first big-girl job after college. I never really saw myself doing anything else,”she said.
“I have no idea what tomorrow will look like, but I do know that I’ll be taking you guys along every step of the way.”
The video has since garnered more than 18,000 views, with dozens of comments from others who recently lost their jobs and could relate. Encouraged by the response, Rea launched an “unemployment diaries” series, posting daily updates for a month. In these videos, she candidly shares her experiences—from doomscrolling LinkedIn to securing interviews, only to face rejection.
“Today is three for three for [job] rejections,”she noted on day 20.
“Today just left me feeling really defeated.”
Rea is far from alone. TikTok hosts over 400,000 posts tagged #unemployed, including roughly 800 under #unemploymentdiaries. The trend highlights the broader challenges facing young workers today. In February, the unemployment rate for Gen Z reached 8.3%—nearly double the national average of 3.9%. Entry-level positions are disappearing, and many young adults are relying on parental financial support or side hustles to make ends meet.
Mar Rosa, a 25-year-old public relations professional from New York City, was laid off from a midsize agency in December.
“You just never really think it’ll happen to you,”she told Fast Company.
“At first I was like, completely candidly, ‘Holy shit, my life is over.’”
After an evening of tears, she decided to post a video documenting a day in her life as a newly unemployed young professional. Her content focuses on maintaining routine amid job hunting—such as running errands with her mother or going to the gym.
“It’s very important that [since] I no longer have a 9-to-5 that I have some sort of consistency within my routine,”she explained in one post.
Initially, Mar—who uses her online nickname—felt embarrassed about her unemployment. But after sharing her first video, friends reached out to share their own struggles with an unstable job market.
“There are some not-so-glamorous things to life, and being laid off is one of them,”she said.
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