Today's Job News: Massive Job Revisions, AI in Recruiting, and Return to Office Policies

Today's job news: host Pete Newsome discusses the latest job market revisions announced by the BLS, revealing that nearly a million reported jobs don't actually exist. 

We also examine:
-The Conference Board's latest Employment Trends Index
-The rise of AI in recruiting, as employer adoption has surged by 428% since 2023
-The continuing dominance of job boards in recruiting
-The latest return to office mandates from NBCUniversal and Paramount. Plus, discover a fun fact about the impact of multitasking on IQ. 

News Articles:
1. BLS Employment Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/prebmk.nr0.htm
2. Conference Board ETI: https://www.conference-board.org/topics/employment-trends-index/
3. ihire State of Online Recruiting: https://www.ihire.com/resourcecenter/employer/pages/the-state-of-online-recruiting-2025
4. Business Insider NBCUniversal RTO: https://www.businessinsider.com/nbcuniversal-rto-order-four-days-week-memo-paramount-amazon-microsoft-2025-9

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Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:03):
Today's big news is yet another bombshell from
the BLS, with the massive jobrevision that just was announced
this morning.
With the current employmentstatistics preliminary benchmark
summary that came out, non-farmpayroll was reduced by 911,000
jobs for the 12-month periodending March 2025.
So nearly a million jobs werereported that don't actually

(00:25):
exist.
Now.
You may recall, the same thinghappened last year when this
report came out.
Now this revision was areduction of 0.6% versus
historically it's about a 0.2%revision, so this is just
considerably worse than ittypically is, as was last year,
and so the net of this is thejob market is completely

(00:45):
stagnant and we've been givenjust completely wrong numbers
for the past two years to asignificant degree.
This is almost 1.7 million jobsthat have been revised.
The job market is undeniablyweak at this point and there's
just really no sign that it'sgetting better.
Each report seems to be worsethan the one before, so good

(01:08):
luck to everyone out there who'sin the job market Anyone who's
part of it.
My business is staffing, soI've been feeling this for a
while.
My peers around the countryhave been feeling this.
Job seekers everywhere havebeen feeling this, so this
deserves a lot of heat on theBLS and just the federal
government as a whole.
It's crossed overadministrations now, but no jobs

(01:30):
of any significance have beenadded in the past couple of
years, and that is now a factthat everyone needs to be aware
of and another indication thatthe job market is losing
momentum.
The Conference Board EmploymentTrends Index fell to 106.41 in
August, down from 107.31 in July, which is the lowest level
since early 2021.

(01:51):
Now this matters because theETI is a leading indicator for
job growth.
When it drops, it means hiringhas slowed.
Mitchell Barnes, who is aneconomist at the Conference
Board, said the ETI peaked twoor three years ago and has been
falling ever since Now.
There's eight components thatmake up this index and the key
factors weighing down thenumbers in August included more

(02:13):
people reporting that jobs arehard to get, fewer hires for
temporary help, industrialproduction is weakening and job
openings are shrinking.
So bad job data everywhereright now.
We really need some good newssoon In our next headline.
According to iHire's 2025 StateOnline Recruiting Survey, ai is
booming, no kidding.
The survey shows that employeradoption of AI in recruiting has

(02:36):
jumped 428% since 2023, and now25.9% of employers are using it
.
That sounds low to me.
I would think most employersmaybe not all, but certainly
more than one out of four wouldbe using AI for hiring right now
.
I would say 75%, but the surveyreported a lower number.
It also showed that job boardsstill rule the day of recruiting

(02:59):
, with nearly 69% of employersconducting all or most of their
hiring there.
I wish there was a bettersystem Everyone does.
I hate the current state of jobboards and one-click apply
applications, but there doesn'tseem to be a better option for
most employers.
And it also showed that 32%plan to ramp up their usage over

(03:19):
the next year.
So not great news on that front.
From a candidate standpoint, itshowed that ghosting and fake
jobs remain the major painpoints.
59% of candidates say applyingand not hearing back is their
top challenge, and 39.3% citefake or ghost job postings.
There that is.
Again it comes up constantlyfake job posts.

(03:41):
These job boards really need toget rid of anyone doing that.
There should be a penalty whereyou can never use it again.
You need to be kicked off theboard entirely if you get caught
doing it.
It's just really bad state ofthings on job boards right now.
But there is some good news foremployees 42.3% of employers
promoted or hired internallyover the past year, versus only

(04:04):
16.9% in 2024.
So that's 150% jump.
Look, we will take good newswherever we can get it right now
.
So if you are employed, themessage here is there's a great
chance your company that youwork for is looking to promote
from within.
Always a good sign.
And our final headline for todayBusiness Insider reports that

(04:24):
NBC Universal is callingemployees back to the office
four days a week.
So here we go with more returnto office.
Starting January 5th 2026,hybrid staff must show up at
least four days a week, withFridays being the only remote
option.
Not very flexible, is it?
And no surprise, there's avoluntary assistance plan that's
being put on the table for anyemployees who won't comply.

(04:47):
Now, this comes just a few daysafter Paramount rolled out a
five-day return to office rule,and they're offering severance
to those who won't comply either.
In a company-wide email, ceoDavid Ellison wrote we need to
all be rowing in the samedirection, and especially when
you're dealing with a creativebusiness like ours, that begins

(05:07):
with being together in person.
He also said we will beoffering a severance opt-in
program for VPs and below basedin Los Angeles and New York who
cannot or do not wish to returnfull time.
So it's not a layoff, butcertainly seems to be an
encouragement for employees toleave, because we know that a
lot are unable or unwilling toreturn to the office once they

(05:30):
were given the option to work athome.
So good luck to everyone there.
And, in closing, our fun factfor today studies show that
multitasking can lower aperson's IQ by up to 10 points,
which is a similar effect tolosing a night's sleep.
Wow, okay, I multitask anddon't sleep very well.
Maybe not, I don't lose a fullnight, but I wonder how much my

(05:53):
IQ is being lowered, because Icertainly don't sleep as well as
I should and multitask way toomuch.
But that is it for today.
Thank you for joining me.
Please like, subscribe, shareand, as always, offer any
comments or feedback that youhave.
I'd love to hear it.
Talk to you soon.