If only 14% consider them AI natives, are those 14% taking active measures to prepare themselves for the new workloads that they may be forced to do? And then by extension, how are, say, college students right now or recent college grads attempting to get those skill sets involved so that they can be more attractive to, to potential employers here?

This is something I have thought so much about the last year because not only do I work at Indeed as director of economic research, but I'm also the mom of a recent college grad.

And so this is something we've talked a lot about at work and in my house.

I think it's very important for people to seek out these AI related skills in today's labor market.

What we found is that 70% of employers expect their employees now to be actively using AI, so using, um, skills like Claude and, and ChatGPT.

Uh, but only about 35% even... or 30, uh, 35% even of Gen Z workers consider themselves really AI fluent at this time.

So this is a way to get ahead in the labor market, and it's also something that you can pretty easily teach yourself if, if you have not become AI fluent at this point.

How much does a labor economist like yourself put into the early stages of this kind of disruption and how it could extrapolate into how industries evolve and change and how rapidly they do?

So how are you looking at the revisions in terms of the trends that we had been reading about the labor market, and does it change your outlook at all?

It really doesn't change my outlook, again, because as I, as I mentioned, what I'm seeing more is just kind of stillness and stagnation in the labor market.

Given what we think break even, um, employment is now in the United States, so, like what we need to add each month to keep unemployment rates steady, 57 jobs... 57,000 jobs being added in a month is not a terrible jobs report.

I wanna be clear about that.

This is, I think, kind of a modest, like, not very exciting, but, but not, you know, no red flags, um, really to be seen here.

Last month was a pretty large number for, for what we've seen in, in recent past.

I think given, you know, coming out of 170,000 plus jobs added in May report, people were thinking maybe that was a sign that we were gonna really start the climb to get back up to some of those larger job reports that we've seen in the past.

That wasn't unexpected because of Memorial Day and some of the World Cup hiring, but were there any hiring trends that were surprising to you?

[laughing]

I am currently living this.

Um, so I'm the director of economic research at Indeed, so I can see under the hood with a lot of what's going on in the labor market, and I have a son who has just moved home, who is actively seeking a job.

He just finished a master's in data science.

Um, that is the softest sector in, in our data at Indeed right now, and so my advice is to keep moving forward.

Find ways to make yourself stand out.

I think networking is more important than ever right now.

How should parents think about grad school if their kids are, you know, about to graduate from undergrad, both when it comes to paying for it or letting their children borrow for it?

What about technology? Is that a strength area?

So it has been quite weak over the past couple of years after a real boom in 2021 and 2022 that I think many economists, including myself, think was a period of over hiring for many tech firms.

One thing we are seeing, though, over the past few months, our job postings and software development have been going up, especially amongst roles that mention AI or machine learning in the title.

And so we are seeing some recent strength in tech jobs specifically in those AI related jobs.

And I just also wanna mention that many of these jobs are, they're not just in tech companies, they're also in other types of firms that are trying to hire AI related talent.

What are the optimistic data points that came up in your research?

Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, I want to acknowledge that that frustration is real for many job seekers.

There are positions right now where there are just many fewer hires happening.

Well, can you go more into that? Like, what does your data show in terms of what kinds of skills or majors employers are looking for in this moment?

Yeah.

So we definitely have seen a decline in tech postings.

Part of it is about the uncertainty around AI.

Uh, there's other things going on as well in, in the tech sector, including the fact that they overhired.

There's a lot going on that is disrupting that market, so majors like computer science, but also data science, data analytics.

Um, business is tougher right now.

How much of the story is like uncertainty created by things like the tariff policy of the Trump administration?

Okay, so in these tighter market conditions, what do you recommend are the most effective ways that job seekers can say stand out beyond just applying to more and more roles?

Absolutely.

You know, we talk a lot at Hiring Lab about how there are jobs and sectors that are seeing a lot of growth.

And, you know, I would say going on to platforms like Indeed, updating your profile there, keeping it active so employers can find you.

Also, you know, make sure you think about your skills and think about how those skills can be used across a broader set of sectors.

So, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the health care and social assistance subsector growing.

Not everybody needs to be a nurse or a medical technician, right? But there are software engineers and accountants and finance people that work for health care employers.

I mean, are you seeing this as a tool that can benefit, I mean, the overall just hiring process? Or are you seeing this right now so fear-driven where many are saying, you know, AI is taking all of our jobs?