US Sees Spike in Youth Joblessness

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1:22This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using ChatGPT for work. Download the ChatGPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more. Whatever your goal, trade show giveaways, client gifts, or team gear, 4imprint has the promo products to match. With thousands of options, from apparel and drinkware to tech and totes, it's easy to find the right fit for your brand and budget with standout choices at every price point. And with their 360-degree guarantee, you can be 4imprint certain your order will show up just right, right on time.

2:00Explore more at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. We know the labor report is certainly top of mind today. And we want to kind of stay on it for a little bit more because we did see job growth moderate materially in recent months. And openings have declined, weighing on broader economic activity. Just a reminder, in case you've been under a rock today, non-farm payrolls did increase 22 ,000 in August. I mean, the range, that was a low. The range, remember, was zero to 144 ,000.

2:42You highlighted that yesterday. And nobody had negative. Right. But 22, it's not good. No. And those revisions showed employment shrank in June for the first time since 2020. that jobless rate taking up to 4.3%. We've got a good voice on this, Tim. Dan Shapiro is COO of LinkedIn. He joins us from Sunnyvale, California. Dan, you got great data on the LinkedIn platform. Was this report as shocking to you as I think it was to a lot of folks out there?

3:08Dan Shapero:Well, the labor market right now, it's slow but steady. And I think that we've seen pockets of continued slowdown, but also pockets of strength. I think on a global basis, healthcare is probably the area of greatest positivity around the world. I think the conversation that a lot of people are having right now is about what's happening with new college grads, entry-level roles. There has been some reports of slowdown in the amount of entry-level hiring that companies are doing. And if you know someone that's graduating from school right now, perhaps you're worried about them landing their first role.

3:40Dan Shapero:And so it might take them a little bit longer. It might be a bit more competitive than we have seen in prior years. I think on the flip of that, one of the advantages that people coming out of college right now have is that companies are looking for people comfortable with AI tools. And oftentimes they find that new college grads that haven't been in the workplace yet, perhaps haven't developed all of their habits around the working world, they might be more flexible to adopt some of the new technologies that are so in demand and the skill sets so in demand by employers. So let's talk a little bit about this.

4:10Shout out to Kevin Gordon out at Charles Schwab. I saw him post this chart earlier in the day. This is the unemployment rate for those who are between the ages of 16 and 24. So those young people who you mentioned, Dan, that unemployment rate now at 10.5%. That's the highest it's been going back to April of 2021. So, you know, in the recovery of the COVID pandemic or the sort of the peak of the COVID pandemic a few months after that, uh, what you talked about AI obviously being something there that's affecting this. But I'm wondering what that does for longer term career prospects, if people early in their careers just cannot get off the sidelines.

4:56Dan Shapero:Well, I think that for new college grads, there's definitely the process of landing your first job. But I think the thing that employers are really, really focused on right now is they're trying to figure out how to retool and upskill their workforces for an economy that is really focused on AI as a way that you win in your market. And they look at new college grads, people earlier in their career, and they're thinking to themselves, these might be the people that are more flexible, that are more fluent with AI, that really can help us go through the transformation that we know we're going to have to go through as an organization.

5:28Dan Shapero:So my advice to people that are earlier in their career is become fluent in AI tools, showcase to employers that you know these tools, that you can bring them into effect in your new work. And I think we're going to find that the people that build great careers are the people that use this opportunity as a chance to really show what they're capable of and help organizations go through a transformation that honestly a lot of leaders are nervous about. What does it mean to be fluent in AI tools? Because two years ago, we were being told, hey, prompt engineer, that's the hottest job around. Well, guess what?

6:00Everybody knows how to be a prompt engineer now. So those jobs don't exist at all. What does it mean to be fluent in AI?

6:08Dan Shapero:It's changing so quickly. In fact, there's this great stat we recently surveyed folks and realized that 51 % of workers around the world, they think of keeping up on AI's tools as like a completely other job that they're doing on top of their day job. And so what was hip and new two years ago is now becoming not what people are focused on. I think the key thing about AI fluency is that on a daily basis, you look at the things that you're doing and you ask yourself, is there something that I could be doing better by using AI? Now, if I think about myself personally, that might be writing the first draft of a presentation.

6:44Dan Shapero:It might be that I'm trying to get up to speed on new tariff legislation. And so maybe I'm not as familiar with that. And I want to use AI to help educate me on how this might impact the markets that I'm participating in. And this is something that I definitely did earlier in the year, as there was a lot in the news about tariffs. So I think it's a mindset. There is a mix of understanding what tools are out there and what they can do, but also just to have a habit of bringing it into your daily work and honestly showing your colleagues around you what's possible when you find that nugget. And yet, where is it that people need workers?

7:19Because we talk so much, Dan, about folks who are building power plants. to meet the demands of AI, the energy demands, that there's not the engineers around. If you need a contractor or a plumber or electrician, they're not around. So I don't necessarily see the AI connection there. I mean, where else are there the disconnects maybe in our labor force? And how is the pushback against immigrants impacting the ability for people to maybe find workers that they need for different types of jobs?

7:54Dan Shapero:Yeah, I spend a lot of my time talking to heads of HR and talent at companies in the US and abroad. And, you know, even though hiring has slowed, they consistently still say that one of the biggest challenges that they have is finding great talent for whatever skills they're looking for. Sometimes those are skills that might be more out in the field. Sometimes those are more corporate roles. But there is still an insatiable need to find great folks. And one of the products that we announced earlier this week is we believe that Agentech technology, it's going to change how people do their jobs, but it's also going to change how companies hire.

8:32Dan Shapero:And so we launched a product called Hiring Assistant that is all about helping recruiters find talent that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to find and really allow organizations to find that person that meets the needs of their skills. And in some cases, that's going to be a role where AI skills are a core part. But in other cases, it'll be the kind of roles that you mentioned, where it's more about building the power plants that facilitate this major boom we're seeing in data centers. Hey, I am also curious what you're seeing about compensation. And we did get a read, certainly that, within the monthly jobs report this morning.

9:05And we did see average hourly earnings come in. let me just look here, month over month, up three-tenths of a percent, year over year, up 3.7 tenths of a percent. Some concerns, though, about we're starting to see some softening when it comes to wage gains. What can you tell us about what you are seeing via the platform when it comes to compensation?

9:26Dan Shapero:I don't have any unique data to offer on compensation per se. I know that one of the things that a lot of people are reporting on is that hiring trends have slowed, but wages have maintained fairly stable. So it'll be interesting to see if that persists. I do think companies are looking at their P &L and they're trying to figure out how to invest in AI tools while continuing to build the teams they need. And so in some cases, they're looking at the number of the people that they're hiring, but they're also looking at their compensation structures. All right, gonna leave it there. Hey, listen, thank you so much.

10:00Dan, have a great weekend. Dan Shapiro is Chief Operating Officer at LinkedIn, joining us from Sunnyvale, California. on this Jobs Friday.

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11:22When you send money abroad using your bank, you could get hit with hidden fees and exchange rate markups. There's a better way. Try Wise. Wise uses the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google with no unwelcome surprises. Plus, most transfers happen in under 20 seconds, which means your money arrives in less time than you've been listening to me. It's simple and free to sign up when you download the Wise app. Be smart. Get wise. T's and C's apply. Before you sign off, you tuned in for ways to help teams move faster, make sharper decisions, and turn scattered context into work they can use. ChatGPT for Business can help.

11:59Chat GPT for Business gives teams a shared workspace with admin controls, permissions, and access to work and codecs in Chat GPT. This means your business can move from question to answer and code to rollout quicker. Join over 10 million business and enterprise users worldwide already using Chat GPT for Work. Download the Chat GPT desktop app or contact sales to learn more.