Ceasefire In Iran And The State Of The US Job Market
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
On Tuesday morning, the president posted on social media that “an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” referring to his Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for trade.
Tuesday evening, the president extended that deadline and agreed to a two-week pause in fighting, writing in a social media post that his decision is based on conversations with Pakistan army chief and its prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said ships will be able to pass through the strait for the next two weeks in compliance with the ceasefire. Araghchi also said Iran will stop military attacks as long as it is not attacked.
Plus – hiring in most of the country is at a virtual standstill. That’s according to the most recent labor market figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The hiring rate fell to 3.1 percent in February. That’s the lowest since April 2020, when the pandemic shuttered many businesses. Job openings also dropped over by the hundreds of thousands compared to January.
Those losses are being felt most by young people. According to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for college grads reached 5.6 percent last year, outpacing the national rate of 4.2. And a November report by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab shows a “substantial decline” in job openings for early career workers in fields most vulnerable to artificial intelligence.
So, how are Americans feeling about the current job market? And how could U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran make a chilly jobs market even colder?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Jen. Just a quick heads up before we start this show. The news is rapidly changing and things may have changed by the time you hear this episode. So stay up to date with all the latest by listening to your local NPR member station and visiting NPR.org. |
| 0:30.5 | Iran, the United States, and Israel have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, though details of the Pakistan-mediated agreement remain murky. |
| 0:37.9 | The deal comes after days of threatening messages from President Trump, who said in a social media post on Tuesday, April 7th, quote, an entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. Here's Defense Secretary |
| 0:43.9 | Pete Hagseth speaking Wednesday morning at the Pentagon. You see, had Iran refused our terms, |
| 0:49.8 | the next targets would have been their power plants, their bridges, and oil and energy infrastructure. |
| 0:56.4 | Targets, they could not defend and could not realistically rebuild. It would have taken them |
| 1:02.2 | decades. And we were locked and loaded. They couldn't defend against it. President Trump had the |
| 1:09.2 | power to cripple Iran's entire economy in minutes, but he chose |
| 1:14.9 | mercy. He spared those targets because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure. |
| 1:24.3 | Iran's foreign minister, Abbasa Rakhshi, says ships will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the next two weeks in compliance with the ceasefire. |
| 1:32.9 | Herakshi also says Iran will stop regional attacks as long as it is not attacked. |
| 1:38.1 | According to HRA and A, that's a U.S.-based human rights group, more than 1,700 Iranian civilians |
| 1:44.5 | have been killed in Iran since the start of the war. |
| 1:47.2 | At least 13 U.S. military service members have died, |
| 1:50.1 | and hundreds were wounded. |
| 1:51.8 | I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast. |
| 1:55.0 | Today, what do we know about the ceasefire |
| 1:57.1 | and what does a pause in fighting mean for the region? |
| 2:00.1 | We'll answer these questions and more |
| 2:01.5 | after this short break. Stay with us. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. We're talking about the ceasefire |
| 2:11.6 | underway in the U.S. Israel War in Iran. Joining us is Greg Carlstrom. He's the Middle East correspondent for the economist, |
| 2:18.7 | and he joins us from Doha Qadar. Greg, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me. |
... |
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