Brittany Luce

Jobs.

Love them or hate them, most of us can't live without them.

The unemployment rate has been climbing over the past few years, but we keep hearing that historically it isn't that high.

Even so, some people have been talking about having a really, really tough time finding work.

There's been reporting that some people are sending out hundreds of resumes with no offers in sight.

Here's listener Jordan Redwine, who called in.

This is None Employment.

For the next few weeks, we're breaking down why getting a job and keeping it feels so hard right now, and how our ideas about employment just aren't matching up with today's realities.

In this episode, we're getting into the job market, why the decent macroeconomic numbers aren't adding up for job seekers, and why everyone might be stuck in an AI doom loop.

I'm joined by Waylon Wong, co-host of NPR's Indicator podcast.

Thanks for having us.

And Nitish Pawar, staff writer for business and tech at Slate.

Hello, hello.

I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Okay, first of all, what is going on in the job market right now?

Like, how are things looking?

They're looking a little weird, I would say.

People are saying this.

People are saying this.

I mean, empirically, what's happening is that we are really seeing the pace of job creation, job growth, slow down.