It’s a busy month for college graduations. USA Today’s Rachel Barber joins to discuss what graduates are looking for in the job market and how they’re feeling about it. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope yesterday, becoming the first American leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Joshua McElwee, Vatican correspondent for Reuters, discusses the new Pope Leo XIV’s biography and positions. A decades-old Soviet-era spacecraft is set to crash-land on Earth any day now. ABC News has more. Eric Roston, sustainability editor for Bloomberg News, talks about the potential environmental impacts of decommissioned satellites that burn up in the atmosphere. Plus, why the head of FEMA was fired, major U.S. cities are sinking, and a mom and her son who plan to graduate together. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What topics are covered in today's podcast episode?
Good morning. It's Friday, May 9th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, for the first time, an American pope. A Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to come crashing down to Earth. And why many non-coastal cities are sinking. But first, we are in the height of graduation season.
Chapter 2: What are the job market expectations for recent graduates?
In fact, this year's graduating class is expected to be the largest in history and millions of young people will be entering the workforce for the first time in the next few weeks. A recent survey found many are pretty optimistic about finding a job.
83% said that they think it'll happen shortly after graduation. 37% predict that it'll happen within four to six months. And only 5% said that they think it'll take them a year or longer.
Rachel Barber is a money and economy reporter at USA Today. She told us about this survey from the job site Monster and Harris Poll. It checked in with more than 1,000 recent and soon-to-be grads.
Most feel confident that they're qualified for an entry-level role, and 20% even said that they feel overqualified for an entry-level position.
Their confidence in the job market has been backed up by recent economic reports. Job numbers were strong in April, beating expectations. The unemployment rate held steady, and average hourly earnings grew slightly. But the graduates surveyed were far less confident that they'll be able to find jobs at the companies they want to work for. Nearly half said they didn't think it was likely.
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Chapter 3: How are graduates influencing workplace trends?
For some, there were a few potential deal-breakers about entering the workforce. Nearly half of the students said that they won't take a job that doesn't have a competitive salary and benefits. Barber says young job seekers are leading the way on pay transparency, pushing executives to publish details like in-office expectations and salaries, a requirement in some but not all states.
Nearly 60 percent of grads think work-from-office requirements are outdated.
I think since COVID, we've seen that more graduates and more workers in general obviously want remote work. And that's something that keeps popping up in the data.
The biggest deal breaker they called out, companies that don't value work-life balance.
More than half said that they won't work somewhere that doesn't provide that. So kind of the conventional wisdom that the first few years of your career are for grinding and putting in overtime to get a promotion. They're not really in agreement with that. They want somewhere where they can clock out at 5 p.m. or something where they don't even have to work until 5 p.m.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do new graduates face in the job market?
because they have flexible hours.
Barber also spoke to some career experts for tips on what graduates should expect as they start their job hunts. One of them told her grads should prepare to be patient.
Companies are taking longer and taking more time in the hiring process. So you're seeing four or five rounds of interviews these days and maybe a writing test and maybe they want more. you to come in for coffee to see if you gel well with the team. And the reasoning behind that, she said, is just because companies can. There's a lot of qualified applicants out there.
And if they're not in a rush to hire someone immediately, there are people who will agree to do that.
Of the young people surveyed, nearly a quarter said they plan to pursue a career in business. 15% said they plan to pursue a career in AI. Now to the Vatican, where yesterday white smoke appeared, signaling to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics that a new spiritual leader has been chosen. Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was emotional as he addressed a jubilant crowd from the Vatican balcony.
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Chapter 5: Who is the new American pope and what is his background?
Peace be with all of you!
He said, may peace be with you all. Leo is the first American ever selected to be pope. But in his first words to followers yesterday, the 69-year-old Chicago native spoke in Italian and Spanish, a language he picked up while spending most of his career in Peru. Joshua McElwee is Reuters Vatican correspondent, and he's had a front row seat to this process over the past few weeks.
He's not someone who a lot of people were looking at. He's only been at the Vatican for about two years. Before that, he was a missionary in Peru.
McAuley said it's an interesting moment to choose an American pope.
There might have been a sentiment now that with the role America is playing on the world stage and the divisive tenor of U.S. President Donald Trump, that maybe it was the right time for an American pope to be at the helm of the Catholic Church and help it navigate and also respond to the American administration.
President Trump called Pope Leo's selection a great honor for the United States. That comes a few days after he tweeted an AI-generated image of himself as pope, which evoked negative reactions from many religious leaders. And it's quite possible the American president and the new American pope won't see eye to eye on many social issues.
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Chapter 6: How might the new pope's views affect U.S.-Vatican relations?
Months ago, a social media account connected with then-Cardinal Prevost criticized the Trump administration and Vice President J.D. Vance, who is a Catholic, for their hardline stance on immigration. Leo is generally seen to be someone who was close to the previous pope, Francis, and has made causes of social justice, especially for refugees, a personal interest.
People McElwee spoke to in Peru noted his down-to-earth manner and compassion for Venezuelan migrants.
He brings with him clear preference for some of the priorities of Pope Francis, who criticized the Trump administration over its handling and deportation of migrants and on other life issues. And I think we can expect that in time, the new Pope, Leo XIV, will also echo Pope Francis and make some of those same criticisms.
It's not clear exactly how Pope Leo might break from his predecessor on issues like sexuality. Pope Francis famously said homosexuality is a sin but not a crime, and he allowed for the blessing of gay couples. As for the new pope, we know little beyond 2012 comments he made, critical of the media's positive portrayal of, quote, practices that are contrary to the gospel.
I think initially you could expect that the new pope would uphold a lot of the traditional Catholic sexual doctrine. And then we could see if on social issues he pronounces a line that might fit in more in a progressive viewpoint.
So there's still a lot of unknowns. For Chicagoans, another big unknown is Pope Leo's baseball allegiances. A rumor quickly circulated on social media that the South Chicago native was a Cubs fan. His brother was quick to clear up the confusion on local WGN-TV.
Clear up the thing about the Cubs and White Sox.
Yeah, he was never, ever a Cubs fan, so I don't know where that came from. He was always a Sox fan.
Any day now, a spacecraft that was sent by the Soviet Union to land on Venus over 50 years ago is expected to fall down to Earth and make a crash landing somewhere. According to ABC News, soon after it initially launched, parts of the spacecraft got trapped in Earth's orbit by mistake.
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