Jeanne Whalen

But here again, the data might be off.

Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring.

The reason they might be overstated is a bit complicated, but it has to do with the way the government gathers the data.

In the labor market right now, which areas are growing and which areas are contracting?

Do we have a sense of that?

Hmm.

Is there any sort of broad theory as to why things are shrinking?

I mean, I've seen a lot of headlines.

We've covered this a bit on the podcast that CEOs are saying, we can be more efficient.

And, you know, AI is creating all these productivity gains.

We don't need so many workers anymore.

Rachel, you spend a lot of time talking with employees.

How would you say generally they're feeling?

Say more about that growing distrust that you mentioned.

Yeah, I mean, it's like things are...

awful for workers right now.

Again, you know, the unemployment rate isn't terrible, but when you compare it to a few years ago when we were all, where the whole market had job offers left and right, where people were getting raises left and right, where everybody was moving and moving up, and things look very different now.

They've come back down more to earth and are kind of drifting more in a slightly more worrying direction.

Direction, just as Risha was saying, it's a vibes thing in the sense that people are comparing things to how it was a few years ago when the job market was on fire.

During the great resignation when it seemed like everybody was like, I'm out of here.