Gary Cohn on the Shutdown & AI’s Impact on the Labor Market 10/29/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The federal government has been shut down for nearly a month, and the economic effects are mounting. IBM vice chairman and former NEC director Gary Cohn discusses the health of the economy, corporate earnings, and how the AI boom is reshaping the labor market. Then, early voting is underway in the New York City mayoral race. CNBC’s Robert Frank reports on the billionaires and businesses that are spending millions to defeat Zohran Mamdani. Plus, CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos has the latest on AI-related layoffs hitting big tech, and Nvidia has become the first company to hit a $5 trillion valuation. Gary Cohn - 15:56 Robert Frank - 35:26 Kristina Partsinevelos - 40:51 In this episode: Gary Cohn, @Gary_D_Cohn Robert Frank, @robtfrank Kristina Partsinevelos, @KristinaParts Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa.
0:08.6	On today's episode, a conversation with Gary Cohn, National Economic Council Director
0:15.2	in President Trump's first administration, Cohn weighs in on the state of our economy.
0:23.6	Overall corporate earnings, they continue to be very strong. But when you look at how corporates are getting there, it's also interesting.
0:27.6	We've seen probably more layoffs in this round of corporate earnings than we've seen in a long period of time.
0:33.6	Indeed, layoffs, layoffs, layoffs this tech earnings season.
0:39.1	Christina Parsinevellous reports on AI's role in tech's labor market.
0:44.0	Top CEOs, we're telling us something completely different about what's driving these cuts.
0:49.6	And the mayoral election that's captured national attention, from billionaires even.
0:55.1	Robert Frank reports on the money flowing for and more commonly against New York mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani.
1:03.3	New York is doing better right now than I've ever seen it, and that's what they're trying to protect.
1:08.1	Those conversations plus $5 trillion with a T in NVIDIA's sightline.
1:15.1	It feels like so recently we were trying to figure out who would be the first company to go
1:18.3	above $1 trillion.
1:20.3	It's Wednesday, October 29th, and Squawk Pod begins right now.
1:25.6	Stand Becky by in three, two, one, pure, please. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squackbox right here on CNBC. We're live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Andrew, welcome back. Thank you. It's nice to see you. I feel like I've been seeing you every day, but in different boxes.
1:45.0	You were never really gone. You were never really gone. Not long enough for you, but yes. If you want to wear that stupid jacket you can wear, I just do it here if you want to. If you want to, I'm, I'm, that's my gift. That's my gift. That's my gift. That's like, I'm too old to worry about these trivial things.
2:02.8	You know, when I'm at old to worry about these trivial things.
2:02.8	When I'm at, when you're sitting at the table, it feels natural. But you would like to wear it. You would like to wear it. I always like the, I like. I like when I sit in and I wear it. Because it...
2:11.0	It has been 14 years he's been yelling at you not to wear a jacket.
2:14.5	And he's just a lot.
	...

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