Cornering The Job Market

The job market keeps sending mixed signals, and today’s headlines highlight just how disconnected the system has become. In today's episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down new data from Business Roundtable, where 169 of America’s largest CEOs shared their hiring plans for the next six months. While business confidence and spending are rising, hiring is flat: roughly...

A $100 million bet on the skilled trades. A global automaker cutting 50,000 jobs. And new hiring data that suggests employers may be more optimistic than the headlines imply. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down three major stories shaping the future of work. First, BlackRock announced a $100 million initiative called Future Builders, aimed at expanding tra...

AI isn’t theoretical anymore... It’s profitable. A new global Snowflake survey of 3,400+ companies reveals that 92% of early AI adopters are seeing positive returns, with average ROI hitting 49%. Companies are making money. Real money. But here’s the part that should get your attention: 63% of respondents report job losses at the entry level. Operations, customer service, and data analytics teams...

Corporate layoffs are rising at the fastest pace since the Great Recession, and at the same time, Washington is quietly hiring back federal workers after cutting more than 387,000 jobs. In today’s Breaking Job News, host Pete Newsome breaks down the Conference Board’s latest Employment Trends Index, where six of eight indicators turned negative, and workers say jobs are now as hard to get as they...

The February jobs report just dropped, and the headline is rough. U.S. payrolls fell by 92,000 in February, reversing much of January’s already revised gains. Unemployment ticked up to 4.4%, long-term unemployment jumped 27% year over year, and prior months were quietly revised downward, wiping out tens of thousands of jobs we thought existed. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host P...

Layoffs are down, but hiring is falling even faster. In today’s Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down a wave of new labor market data that reveals a troubling pattern: companies aren’t cutting aggressively anymore, but they’re not adding jobs either. We start with the February Challenger Job Cut Report, which shows layoffs dropped sharply month over month. Sounds like good news.....

A new employment report suggests the job market is improving, but the details tell a very different story. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down the latest private payroll data from ADP, which shows the strongest hiring month in seven months. Private employers added 63,000 jobs in February, a headline that sounds encouraging at first glance. A closer look re...

If AI replaces your job, can the Federal Reserve help? According to a new Reuters report, the answer may be no. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down why Fed officials are openly questioning whether traditional tools like interest rate cuts will work in an AI-driven displacement cycle and why that admission matters more than most people realize. Pete starts...

The headlines say customer service jobs are safe. They're not. And the data proves it. Gartner just published a report claiming that half of the companies that cut customer service staff due to AI will rehire by 2027. Sounds like good news...until you read the fine print. Their own data tells a very different story. Klarna's AI is now doing the work of 853 agents. Resolution time dropped...

One company just cut 40% of its workforce... and Wall Street rewarded it. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down Block’s decision to eliminate more than 4,000 roles despite strong revenue and profit growth. CEO Jack Dorsey made it clear: AI has made teams productive enough to operate with far fewer people. Investors responded by sending Block’s stock up 25% o...

The labor market may be stuck in neutral, but AI is accelerating fast. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down a major new study from Cognizant that analyzed more than 18,000 tasks across 1,000 jobs and found that 93% of U.S. jobs are now exposed to AI in some capacity. Even more striking: the level of disruption researchers expected by 2032 has already arrive...

AI skills are no longer optional. According to new data from Zapier, 98% of executives say they want employees who can use AI, and many are investing heavily in training, hiring, and building AI-focused roles. Pay premiums are emerging for top AI talent, and the C-suite is making it clear: AI capability is the new baseline. At the same time, a new survey from Express Employment Professionals shows...

The labor market just sent a mixed signal, and it’s one we can’t ignore. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showing that while AI-exposed industries are seeing fewer jobs overall, wages for experienced professionals are rising sharply. In computer systems design, pay has jumped more than double the nati...

Most people are still using AI like it's a Magic 8-Ball. Ask a question, get an answer, shake and repeat. But there's a new category of AI that goes way beyond chat. They're called AI agents - and they don't just answer questions, they actually DO work. AI agents can: Browse the web and research topics Write and execute code Create documents and files Complete multi-step projec...

Performance review season is here, and the data suggests workers aren’t happy about it. In today’s episode of Cornering the Job Market, host Pete Newsome breaks down new findings from Glassdoor showing that 88% of performance review mentions in 2026 are negative, up from 83% just a few years ago. Mentions of performance improvement plans (PIPs) have surged eightfold since 2021, and employees incre...

A college degree used to be the safety net. Now it might be the risk. Today’s episode breaks down a new warning about the future of white-collar work and why many professionals may be unprepared for what’s coming next. Host Pete Newsome unpacks a report showing college graduates now make up a record share of the unemployed and what happens if job loss becomes structural instead of cyclical. Then P...

The economy looks strong on paper, but hiring data tell a different story. A new analysis from Mohamed El-Erian explains why growth and employment are now moving in opposite directions, a pattern that rarely occurs outside recessions. Companies aren’t hiring because they expect AI to handle the work soon, and many are still correcting over-hiring from the post-pandemic boom. At the same time, a ne...

The job market just sent two contradictory signals simultaneously. New data shows hiring indicators improving and pay for new hires rising, but confidence in finding a job just hit a five-year low. So which one should workers believe? Host Pete Newsome breaks down fresh ADP numbers showing that the job-switching pay bump has shrunk dramatically, weekly hours are falling, and employers are relying...

Law school applications are up 44% in two years—the highest level since the early 2000s. At the same time, Goldman Sachs estimates 44% of legal work could be automated by AI.  Same percentage. Opposite directions.  Harvey AI is already inside 42% of the biggest law firms in America. And the CEO of Anthropic is warning that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within five years...

What happens when AI moves from assistant to operator while workers feel more pressure than ever? Today’s headlines collide in a big way. Microsoft’s head of AI says many professional desk jobs could be automated within 12–18 months, pointing to software development as proof that the shift has already started. Roles are evolving toward oversight, strategy, and judgment instead of execution. At the...

You might not be getting rejected because of your resume... it could be your social media. New hiring tools now use AI to scan public posts and generate personality scores before employers ever decide to interview you. Host Pete Newsome explains how automated screening works, what employers are actually looking for, and why a single post can quietly remove you from consideration. Pete also breaks...

The January jobs report is finally here, and the headline number isn’t the real story. Yes, 130,000 jobs were added and unemployment dipped to 4.3%. But buried inside the report was a massive revision: 2025 job growth was slashed from 584,000 to just 181,000. That means nearly 400,000 jobs we thought existed… didn’t. In today’s episode, host Pete Newsome breaks down what this means for trust in th...

The job market is sending mixed signals, and the timing couldn’t be worse. With the delayed jobs report expected to show weaker growth, private hiring slowing sharply, and AI anxiety rising, workers are being forced to make tougher career decisions with less clarity than ever. Host Pete Newsome starts with new Glassdoor data analyzing over 268,000 employee reviews to answer a question many people...

Who do you trust when it comes to AI displacing jobs? The government? David Sacks, the White House AI czar, goes on TV to tell you not to worry. AI is creating jobs, he says. Data center construction is booming. Everything's fine. Meanwhile, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic (one of the companies actually building this technology), just published a 20,000-word essay called "The Adolesce...

Job seekers are getting so desperate that they’re paying recruiters to find them a job, and that should be a red flag for where the market is heading. Host Pete Newsome explains why “reverse recruiting” is unnecessary, how it preys on anxiety, and why targeted outreach beats mass, AI-generated messaging every time. Then he shifts to 4 Corner Resources’ new Q1 Employee Mindset Survey of employed wo...