Breaking Job News: BLS Jobs Report Drama & 2026's 'Stable But Stuck' Forecast

What do you do when one of the most important signals in the labor market vanishes? Today's Breaking Job News dives into the unprecedented cancellation of October’s BLS Jobs Report and what it means to lose the unemployment rate, labor-force participation, and the demographic details we rely on to understand the job market. With only September’s numbers available, 119,000 jobs added, unemployment at 4.4%, and more downward revisions, host Pete Newsome breaks down where momentum is slowing, where it’s holding up, and why healthcare continues to prop up national job growth.

Then he explores the surprising split in ZipRecruiter’s Q4 Job Seeker Confidence Survey. Market expectations plunge to record lows, yet preparedness hits an all-time high. Nearly 27.3% of job seekers say they feel completely confident they’ll land a role within 30 days, even as holiday hiring cools. From one-click applies to broken pipelines, Pete digs into why ghosting remains the number-one frustration for candidates and how simple feedback mechanisms could rebuild trust without slowing recruiters down.

Looking ahead, Indeed’s trends point to a “low hire, low fire” environment through 2026: slow growth, minimal cuts, and huge gaps across regions and sectors. Healthcare roles remain well above pre-COVID norms, while tech, retail, and hospitality lag, offering a realistic roadmap for job seekers seeking durable skills and stable opportunities. Pete wraps by connecting the release of Windows 1.0 to today’s AI revolution, showing why AI literacy and workflow integration are quickly becoming the baseline for productivity and long-term career resilience.

News Articles:
1. BLS September Jobs Report: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
2. Indeed’s 2026 US Jobs & Hiring Trends Report: https://www.hiringlab.org/2025/11/20/indeed-2026-us-jobs-hiring-trends-report/
3. The ZipRecruiter Job Seeker Confidence Survey: https://www.ziprecruiter-research.org/job-seeker-confidence

💬What do you think: How confident are you in your own career prospects heading into 2026?

Don’t miss out! Subscribe for weekly updates on the latest job news. 

🧠 WANT TO LEARN MORE? Be sure to subscribe and check out 4 Corner Resources at https://www.4cornerresources.com/

👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
Blog Articles: https://www.4cornerresources.com/blog

Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:00):
In today's job market headlines, the jobs data
is getting weaker, and inOctober it disappeared
altogether.
Today's job report shows alabor market that's slightly
growing, at least in September,which is the only thing we have
to work with.
Because I should be talkingabout October data right now,
but yesterday the Department ofLabor announced the October jobs

(00:23):
report has been canceled.
They literally couldn't collecthousehold survey data, which
means no October unemploymentrate, no labor force
participation, and nodemographic detail.
Those numbers are just gone.
And that hasn't happened since2013.
So here's what we know forSeptember.
The U.S.
economy added 119,000 jobs, andthe unemployment rate increased

(00:45):
slightly from 4.3% to 4.4%.
The number of unemployedAmericans remained at $7.6
million, and labor forceparticipation was virtually
unchanged.
Now there were some job gains ina few areas.
Healthcare added 43,000 jobs,food services 37,000, but
transportation and warehousinglost about 25,000.

(01:07):
And of course, we haverevisions, the small print at
the bottom of every reportlately.
July and August were reviseddown by 33,000 jobs.
That's less than what waspreviously reported.
And the employer survey forOctober did get collected at
least, but that's going to beheld until the November report.
So we'll basically get a doublerelease of sorts, October and

(01:29):
November jobs data together, butagain, no household
information.
And the next headline, jobseekers are gloomy about the
market, but more confident inthemselves than ever, at least
according to ZipRecruiter's newJobSeeker Confidence survey.
It shows that job seekerconfidence is down.
Of course it did.
And those who took the survey,well, they're not optimistic

(01:50):
heading into 2026 either.
The expectations index, whichis how people feel about the
market over the next six months,dropped to its lowest level on
record.
At the same time, thepreparedness index, which is how
confident people are in theirability to search for a job and
present themselves, that rose toa record high.
There was a couple other thingsin the report that jumped out

(02:11):
at me.
One is that the share of peoplewho are completely confident
they'll find a job in the nextmonth, in the next month, keep
in mind where we are right now.
I mean, we're heading into theholiday season where things slow
down.
That hit a record 27.3%.
I love the confidence.
I hope they're successful, butI just don't see that in the
data.
So the fact that that's arecord given everything that's

(02:34):
going on right now wasdefinitely a surprise to me.
One stat in particular I foundfascinating in a in a really
disgusting way, and that's thatghosting remains the number one
pain point of job seekers.
40% say never hearing back istheir biggest issue.
Now, as a recruiter or someonewho owns a staffing company
specifically, I'll tell you thatnot hearing back is more of a

(02:58):
product of just the massone-click apply scenario that
we're in right now, wherethere's just it's just not
practical for many companies orjust not equipped when they put
up a job post to reply to everycandidate, even if it's an
automated message, just a lot ofcompanies don't have that
ability.
So never hearing back from anapplication is one thing.
But after an interview, in manycases, that is just insane to

(03:23):
me that a company wouldinterview someone and not give
feedback.
Any percentage of at all of thathappening is unacceptable.
And I guess my question is thisfor anyone who's listening, is
that really happening?
I would love feedback.
I don't, I know my peers andwho own staffing companies that
I compete against, even the onesI don't like don't operate that

(03:43):
way.
And so is this happening at thecorporate level?
Is it happened from workingwith third-party recruiters?
If you have any insight inthat, on that, I'd love to hear
it.
Please reach out to me and letme know if that's happened to
you.
I'd love to explore thatfurther.

And today's final headline (03:55):
the 2026 job market probably won't
be a boom or a bust, just moreof, well, this, what's happening
right now.
That's my takeaway fromIndeed's new jobs and hiring
trends report.
It tried to answer the questionof where we're heading, right?
Is it going to be a cliff, arebound, or complete stagnation?
And the short version of thereport is just don't expect big

(04:19):
swings.
Job postings, which of courseis Indeed's core business,
showed a decline in nearly everysector throughout 2025.
Otherwise, there really wasn'tmuch of interest in the report,
to be completely frank.
Uh, it talked aboutimmigration, uh, tightening the
labor supply.
We know that's happening, thefederal cuts that are happening.
But I think the mostinteresting thing, at least for

(04:41):
me, was that it's kind of astory of healthcare versus
everything else right now.
While healthcare is only 11.4%of overall employment, it
accounted for 47.5% of all jobgrowth in 2025.
That is a crazy number.
And healthcare postings onIndeed are still 22.5% above
pre-COVID levels, whiletechnology and retail and

(05:04):
hospitality are way below the2020 benchmark.
So that's really a story, like Isaid, of healthcare versus
everything else out there.
And so the net of it is we arein what Indeed refers to as a
low hire, low fire environment.
Now that's probably going to bethe same in 2026.
We're just not expecting muchof a change because there's just

(05:27):
nothing to indicate that therewill be.
Let's end on a fun note.
40 years ago today, Microsoftreleased Windows 1.0.
Maybe they called it 1.0 then.
I wasn't paying attention thenlike I am now, but it was its
very first graphical operatingenvironment.
What a turning point in historyfor personal computing,

(05:47):
software development, howbusinesses run, how everything
operates.
I wonder if anyone knew whatwas happening then.
If we have AI right now wherethere's a lot of debate over how
prevalent it will become, howmuch of an impact it will have
on the workforce.
I'm of course in the camp thatsays it's going to have a
drastic impact, the biggestthing to ever happen.

(06:07):
But boy, not much has beenbigger in evolution than what
Microsoft released with Windowswhen it first came out.
So I wonder if Bill Gates hadany idea what an impact he was
going to have.
I'm sure he dreamed about it,but I don't know if it was
possible to foresee how big itwould become.
So there we are.
Those are your job headlinesfor today.
Thank you so much forlistening.

(06:28):
Please like, subscribe, andshare with anyone you think
might be interested.
Look forward to talking soon.