Derek Thompson

So if anyone wants to feel like incredibly tripped out while they're making coffee in the morning for their family, like definitely get the audio book of Blood Meridian.

It's a really extraordinary experience.

Today, something alarming is happening to the job market for young people.

For the last year, as the unemployment rate for recent college graduates has crept ominously upward, one of the questions I've reported most deeply is, is AI replacing young workers' jobs?

To make a long story short, I initially said yes.

Then some economists convinced me the answer was no.

Then some other economists convinced me the answer was yes.

Then some other experts convinced me the answer was no.

And then some other researchers assured me the answer was maybe.

If that's unclear to you, then very good.

You're paying attention because it is clear as mud to me.

What is clear is that something weird is going on with the elevated unemployment rate for young people today.

And no one is exactly sure what that thing is.

And in a way, that uncertainty is even scarier.

After all, if you have an illness and a doctor provides a diagnosis, even if it's a frightening diagnosis, at least you have an answer.

Oh, you can't breathe?

Well, we did a CT scan.

It's pneumonia.

That sucks.

But what sucks more is if you go to the ER and you can't breathe and they do a CT scan and one doctor says, that's clearly pneumonia.