People seem to need their devices and networks running smoothly now more than ever. Whether we're talking about the comfort of their homes or a regular coffee shop, Americans expect and rely on internet access being available almost wherever they go.

Still, the Federal Communications Commission estimates that more than 21 million people in the United States don't have that connection. That includes nearly 3 in 10 people—27 percent—who live in such rural places as the outreaches of Maine and the fertile fields of Indiana, as well as 2 percent of those living in cities.

Research shows that as many as 40 percent of schools lack broadband, as do 60 percent of health care facilities outside metropolitan areas. Furthermore, those are conservative estimates.

And at a time when broadband access has become increasingly essential, any community without fast, reliable internet is condemned “to a long, dark death,” said Peggy Schaffer, executive director of Maine’s ConnectME Authority, which is working to extend service in the state.

Without broadband, Schaffer said, “Kids can't do homework. Older people have to drive off our islands to talk to a doctor. Boats delivering live lobsters from the ocean that can't 'talk' in real-time to their customers lose a competitive edge in the supply chain. Before long, young families, older citizens, and jobs leave. New employers don’t come in."

Cost is one of the obstacles that make it difficult to extend broadband internet to everyone who wants it. The companies providing the services need adequate returns to justify their investment in the necessary infrastructure of cables and towers.

And at the other end of the supply-demand equation, many low-income Americans lack access because they can't afford the monthly bills that come with connecting a computer to high-speed internet.

The Pew Research Center reported in May that 44 percent of adults living in households with incomes below $30,000 don’t have broadband.

This disparity in access is also seen in what researchers call the “homework gap”—the differences between school-age children who have access to high-speed internet at home and those who don’t (a 2015 report found that 35 percent of lower-income households with children in school didn’t have a broadband connection at home).

However, the situation is getting better. Policymakers in rural and urban states are trying out new approaches, including building partnerships between public and private entities and using grants from foundations to bring broadband to more sparsely populated places.

According to Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, a membership organization of nearly 850 small providers in 45 states, small providers often pop up in places large internet companies don’t serve, and hometown phone companies expanding into this market sometimes offer broadband to as few as a hundred neighbors.

However, when it comes to the people who actually keep things running (including this subreddit), the future looks grim.

Just 9% of tech workers are feeling confident in their job security, according to a June survey from Blind, the anonymous professional networking site.

Job-market fears are being fueled by months of headlines about hiring freezes, job offers being rescinded, and mass layoffs from burgeoning upstarts and tech giants alike, including Robinhood and Oracle just this week.

(More than 32,000 people have been laid off from the U.S. tech sector in 2022, according to Crunchbase data.)

The good news is that broad pessimism stands in contrast with a still-hot labor market. Hiring and quits remain near record highs, while June layoffs remained just under 1% of the workforce.

Tech workers may not have as much bargaining power as early 2022, but they are still well-positioned to look for a new position or land on their feet if they're laid off.