Transcription
The slowing US job market has made looking for work nearly impossible for many Americans. According to Labor Department data, nearly two million Americans have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. In tonight's In Death, Jerica Duncan reports, long-term unemployment is becoming life-altering.
"Good job, buddy."
When 41-year-old Emily Groveman is not volunteering at this animal shelter, she's usually in her New York City one-bedroom apartment looking for a job.
"It's been impossibly difficult. It's been almost 2 years."
"For almost a decade."
"Yeah, we got London, China, Istanbul."
She worked in hospitality with the NBA.
"All the swag, tickets to parties, back of house tours, meets and greets with the players, that would all flow through me."
Groveman went on to lead a team at a digital marketing firm for six years. She left in 2023 and hasn't been able to find another job since. She's tried everything, she says, from reaching out to her network of friends to working with a recruiter.
"Oh, hi. I'm Emily."
And even posting these resumes on LinkedIn.
"The job market has been brutal for quite some time,"
"But the nos have been relentless. I had 13 interviews with 11 different people and"
"13 interviews for one company."
"Yeah. And then they were stuck between me and the other candidate. And ultimately they went with the other person and I was like, I can't keep doing this."
As the rejections piled up, so too have the bills.
"Since March, I've been living off of my 401k."
"Your 401k?"
"Yeah."
"You're 41 years old."
"Yes. I've been dipping into it every month now."
In August, nearly 2 million people in this country face long-term unemployment, the highest number since 2022 during the pandemic.
"The primary reason we're seeing long-term unemployment getting worse is because of economic uncertainty coming out of the White House."
Labor economist Terresa Gillard Duchi,
"Are things expected to get better anytime soon?"
"If someone is looking for work now, it's going to be tougher. More people looking for the job that you want and um more and more businesses being reluctant to hire. It doesn't mean you should stop, but the market will not ease up for anytime soon."
As for Groveman, she's given up on trying to find a job. In December, she plans to move to a Buddhist temple in upstate New York, where she will get free housing for working at a retreat center.
"If you have the ability to work, you should be able to. And that's how the American dream happens. You pull yourself up by your bootstraps and put in the work and you'll be rewarded. But that's not happening anymore."
The American dream currently deferred for some. Jerica Duncan, CBS News, New York.
The unemployment rate for new college grads has recently surged and some economists say businesses are now replacing entry-level jobs with artificial intelligence. Here's CBS's Alli Bowman.
"Front gate. Front gate."
22-year-old Michael Maluso just earned his degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut.
"Feel good."
But this summer, he's back helping manage his hometown pool. He hasn't found a job in his field despite applying for nearly 200 positions.
"Did you have any expectations about what the job market would be like when you graduated?"
"I was told by a lot of people that I was going to get a job right out of college and then all of a sudden there's no jobs."
New research finds now for the first time ever the unemployment rate among recent college graduates has exceeded the national unemployment rate ballooning to 6.6% over the past 12 months. Oxford Economics Matthew Martin.
"This is kind of goes against what you would expect. Those with higher educational attainment usually have better employment prospects than those with less educational attainment."
Martin's team believes companies are eliminating formative entry-level jobs. The work handed over to artificial intelligence. Tech companies are leading the way.
"AI is permeating every aspect of our lives."
Nariman Farvardan, the president of Stevens Institute of Technology, says his school has been preparing for the AI revolution for the last 10 years. He expects disruption throughout the workforce will be bigger than the disturbance brought on by the introduction of the internet and it could last up to 15 years.
"I think AI uh has the potential to either augment or maybe totally replace jobs that are physically or cognitively repetitive. These jobs are not only done by entry people. There are certain people who do repetitive things for all of their life. Those jobs are in jeopardy."
Kaylee Tottland just graduated from Stevens with her computer science degree. She did an internship with Verizon as a sophomore and the company has now hired her.
"I think something that's important with entry-level jobs is the networking and the opportunities that you make from it."
Farvaren says his message to students today is the same as it always has been. Get an education that will last a lifetime.
"We don't try to teach our students skills. We try to teach students a way to learn on their own for the rest of their lives."
He says workers who innovate alongside AI won't get left behind. Alli Bowman, CBS News, Eastchester, New York.
"We started the broadcast with the Labor Department report showing a slowdown in job creation. We want to go behind the numbers now to look at the real life impact of a weak labor market."
"You will hear now from a US Army veteran unable to find a job and struggling to support herself and her children."
"My name is Aubrey Carter. I am 30 years old. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. And I have not been able to find work since I left the military in 2022."
[music]
"Guys, you guys, let's do our affirmations before school."
"I am Kai and I am beautiful."
"Even after serving six years, I am unable to get health insurance for my kids because I cannot find a job."
"All right. I love you."
"Have a good day. Okay."
"I'll see you later."
"I do Uber part-time. I never thought I would be Ubering after the army. For additional income, I do juices on the side. Today, my customers are asking for a green juice. I thought that after the military that I was going to have health care for my kids, which is a very common misconception. I have insurance through the VA, but my kids are uninsured."
"How was your day at school today?"
"Good."
"Last year, the kids caught the flu and we had to share medication because the tama flu was so expensive. I couldn't afford it for three."
"I feel invisible because despite serving my country, despite being a veteran, the job market has still shown no mercy."
"Good job. Like that. That's a perfect pe."
[laughter]
"I want more for my kids than just giving them the bare minimum. But it makes me emotional because I just want them to have so much more. And it it hurts telling them no."
[snorts]
"Here you go. A clean."
"And I would just really like for the people in power to know how much veterans truly have sacrificed."
"I pray the Lord my soul to keep"
"How hard it is for veterans to find employment to truly just keep up."
"Good night guys. I love you."
"Good night mommy."
Now Eye on America. Our look at challenges and issues around the country and we hope solutions. Tonight, college graduates looking for work in a tight labor market. Meg Oliver now on what experts say grads can do to increase their chances of scoring that first [music] job and advice for employers as well.
"So, how organized are you?"
"Very."
[laughter]
23-year-old Jamie Delpiano thought her credentials would stand out. A stellar GPA, a degree in psychology, a master's in public policy at the University of Connecticut. She graduated in May hoping to land a job as a child advocate.
"How many applications have you sent out?"
"Anywhere from like 10 to 20."
"What's the response been like?"
"I haven't had enough experience and that's of course challenging because I can't get any experience without a job."
A recent report shows graduates are entering a turbulent economy with more competition for entry-level positions. Job postings have declined by 15% while the number of applications has increased by 30%.
"A lot of the jobs that I was looking for was like federal jobs or state jobs."
Some of those jobs have been eliminated by budget cuts.
"So, you're competing with people with a lot of experience."
"Exactly."
Delpiano's frustrations are felt by job seekers around the country.
"They had each done multiple internships. They were parts of community groups."
Ryan McGonagal is talking about his own interns at business.com, which helps small businesses looking to expand their reach. As they sent out resumes looking for work, he did a study tracking each one. Of the 311 applications those interns sent out, 87% didn't even get a response. Only five applicants received a scheduled interview. and the number of job offers zero.
"Has it ever been this bad in the last decade?"
"No."
Valerie Merchinelli is a career counselor. She advises taking a personal approach to each application. Write different cover letters, network in person, and steer clear of AI.
"Don't use AI for any of your application materials because what a lot of employers are saying if they think you are using AI, they think it's disingenuous and it will automatically disqualify you."
As for employers, Martinelli says they need to put the human touch back into human resources.
"What is your advice to HR managers and companies that are hiring right now?"
"Take the 3 to 5 years experience off of your job descriptions."
Delpiano is trying to remain optimistic, but with $15,000 in debt, it's not easy.
"What are you learning from this experience?"
"I'm learning that you have to have grit."
But grit alone won't get it done for this year's job hunting grads like Jamie Delpiano. They're going to need plenty of patience and resilience as well. For Eye in America, I'm Meg Oliver in Ellington, Connecticut.
We reported earlier in the broadcast on the new data showing job creation in the US was much weaker than previously reported. If you're a young job seeker, you probably already knew that. The unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds is more than 9%, double the national average. New research shows artificial intelligence is making it even harder to land that first job. Barat Chander, researcher at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, has helped crunch the numbers and joins us now for tonight's interview. Thank you so much for joining us. What's the what's the first big picture takeaway from the work that you did?
"In the data, we found declining employment for entry-level workers in jobs that are more exposed to AI. For example, employment for young software engineers is down 20% from its peak in late 2022, which is around the time that Chat GPT came out. In contrast, employment for older workers is still holding up pretty strong. And employment for young workers in jobs that are less exposed to AI, such as nursing and home health aids, is also still growing pretty strong."
"So for some people who haven't followed your work or this area, they might think, wait a minute, software developers, people in high-tech, how can they be hurt by AI? What's the answer?"
"Well, one hypothesis is AI is particularly good at doing the sort of work that young people, especially in these types of jobs, have the most expertise in. If you think about how AI models are trained, they use the sort of book knowledge and written down information that students may learn while they're at school, especially for jobs such as software engineering. This could make AI a closer substitute for entry- level work in these kinds of jobs. And in contrast, older workers develop experience and tacit knowledge about how to do a job that AI may not be as good at handling."
"So it's so jobs where something can be automated are more vulnerable to AI, but where AI can kind of augment that experience you're talking about. Is that a good way to think about kind of the its effects on the job market?"
"That's right. We we do show that in the paper in fact. So in the types of jobs where AI is automating the work. So think of replacing entire parts of a workflow in a job, we're seeing these employment declines for entry-level workers. In contrast, in areas where AI is augmenting work, such as by helping someone learn or work collaboratively with the AI for feedback, we're continuing to see employment growth both for young workers and for older workers."
"How does it show up, if it does all uh on salaries and compensation?"
"One interesting result in the paper is that we do not see notable changes in salaries for these exposed young workers. The effects we're seeing are really mostly around employment and it'll be interesting to see if that continues. So basically whether you get a job or not is really the main influence. If I've got a job then then it's probably means it's one that's not affected too much by AI and therefore the salaries I'm not going to face a lot of competition on price. It could be uh there are there are a lot of competing things that could be going on. One is that you know maybe it's a different type of worker who's getting hired now in the age of AI. Maybe someone who's more AI native as opposed to in the past. So there are a lot of potential effects that are going on and we're going to need to do more research into understanding these wage impacts and and what might be driving those."
"You mentioned um certain kinds of industries that aren't affected. Have there been ones that have seen growth where there have been more jobs because of AI?"
"Yeah, a good example of this is like I mentioned for nursing and home health aids. Uh we we show in the paper that in fact young workers in these occupations are growing faster than even older workers in those same occupations. So it's kind of a reversal of the trend that we showed elsewhere. And you know these are jobs that involve a lot of physical interaction, social interaction. And maybe that's the reason that we're seeing different trends."