Reviewing the recent published population reports across starter planets show a worrying theme - unemployment is on the rise as the populations keep growing uncontrollably. Phobos leads with a whopping 30.1% unemployment rate, while Promitor keeps it at a more controlled level of 14.2%. The other planets lie somewhere in between.

Pioneers spotted mounting a banner on Moria Station ¹

Organizations were initially afraid of their workforce leaving them as new plots were being populated. This scenario has not occurred however, as the populations have been growing faster than the speed of which organizations can offer habitations and employment. Some of the main planets even report as no longer having any available plots for corporations. Promitor is notoriously known as being the most crowded planet in the universe, and lately even Montem is reporting as filled on plots.

We sleep in sheds next to farmsteads, as there are no habitation housings that will take us

• Joshua Lepton, unemployed (Promitor)

For those that are lucky, they eventually might get employed by the corporation that owns the farmstead.

Meanwhile, some pioneers take to the skies in the hope of leaving Promitor. Mr Lepton tells us of an old friend that has migrated:

She got tired of sleeping in sheds with rain coming in through the roof, so she got a job on a ship belonging to Universal Reserve, which at the time had no headquarter. It was undeclared work, she flew across the universe and was not even paid basic consumables for her work. I was told the corporation eventually settled on a plot on Nike where she found a hab module. I haven’t seen her since.

Governors on planets have little power to influence unemployment. Most governors keep taxes low, in an attempt to gain popularity with corporations so they will settle plots. Prosperous corporations aim to increase their production, and hopefully also the amount of habitation modules they construct. These habitations provide some safety on the planet as they come with artificial lighting and some security measures, but new reports ( https://com.prosperousuniverse.com/t/reducing-base-safety-and-health-values/3461 ) seem to suggest that corporations are cutting down on these features. Soon governors will have to invest in Safety Stations (SST) to maintain a high level of safety on their governing planets, or they will risk seeing unsafe environments while what appears to be a continuing increase in unemployment. Perhaps a low level of safety combined with a high level of unemployment could trigger planet-wide events such as demonstrations and strikes in the future?

While the lower-educated populace seems to have an increase in unemployment, one group stands out. Recently, Castillo-Ito Mercantile-factioned Proxion became the first planet in the universe to get its second engineer.

Life has been pretty good here for technicians. I’ve had a job for a while and there has been a shortage of technicians on the planet. However, I’ve seen my pioneering friends having a hard time to find jobs, so they spend their time educating themselves to become settlers. I felt I had to do the same, and now I’ve gotten the official title as Engineer.

• Bert the Engineer (Pseudonym)

As of the time of writing, Proxion has the largest amount of open jobs for engineers, with 59 open positions.

The race for ship manufacturing is underway, with many corporations looking to cut costs and haul more commodities. Ship engines, however, require to be assembled at Spacecraft Propulsion Factories (SPF), which are greatly increased in assembly speed if scientists are present. Currently there exists no known scientists in the universe, hence the Turnip is unable to write any articles stating “Scientists believe…”. The lack of scientists is probably caused by the lack of universities, libraries, and planetary broadcasting hubs across the universe.

I might get a job as a teacher in the future…but who knows man, while the corporations are hoarding millions, us regular workers don’t have much of a prosperous future. Sometimes I feel we are left forgotten

• Bert the Engineer (Pseudonym)