Daniel Ackerman

Here's one concern that Mark Hamrick, an economist at Bankrate, has about those 6.5 million job openings.

Less demand for professional and business services, for example, which had over a quarter million fewer job openings in December compared to the month before.

Nguyen says the growth of artificial intelligence could be one explanation.

Pavlina Chernova, a professor of economics at Bard College, says it's too early to tell how much AI is really to blame here, but the hiring slowdown is starting to take its toll on some groups.

The labor market is a very challenging place for young people, for young workers.

Their unemployment rates are approaching double digits.

Unemployment for Black workers is rising too.

So when you add all of this up together, the conclusion is that the labor market is just not creating enough jobs.

And she says the problem doesn't seem to be improving.

The number of workers unemployed for half a year or longer has nearly doubled in the past three years.

I'm Daniel Ackerman for Marketplace.

When you ask a lender how they decide whether to make a loan, they'll often bring up the five C's of lending.

Character, capacity to repay, capital or financial resources, collateral, and conditions.

We're looking at how the loan will be used and external factors like interest rates and trends in the industry.

That's Robert James II, CEO of Carver Financial Corporation, which owns banks in Alabama and Georgia.

He says the most important C on that list is character, as in a borrower's credit history.

But another big one is capacity, whether a borrower will be able to repay a loan today and in the future.

And that's where the presence of AI, the threat of AI, or perhaps the opportunity presented by AI starts to impact a business model.

Lenders are concerned about whether AI is going to disrupt a borrower's entire industry.

David Schiff with FTI Consulting says a bank might think twice about lending to a company that provides services that AI can provide.