Is AI slopifying the job market? (Two Indicators)
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 29.8K Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
AI is already reshaping how people find work. Fewer entry-level jobs, robot recruiters, and ever-changing new skill requirements all add up to a new, daunting landscape for humans trying to find dignified work.
Today on the show: two stories from the edges of a changing labor market. First we’ll assess claims that AI is causing a white collar job apocalypse. What does the data actually say? We meet an economist who has found one small but fascinating way to measure the impact of AI on workers.
Then, we go face-to-face, or at least voice-to-voice, with AI. We meet a robot recruiter for a job interview and find cause to ask, ‘When might that actually be preferable to a human recruiter?’
Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+
Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.
The original Indicator episodes were hosted by Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, and Adrian Ma. They were produced by Cooper Katz McKim and engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Debbie Daughtry. They were fact checked by Sierra Juarez. They were edited by Paddy Hirsch and Kate Concannon.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:06.0 | A couple of months ago, Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, took the stage at an event |
| 0:11.8 | called the Aspen Ideas Festival. He was there to talk about the future of the economy and the |
| 0:17.1 | importance of skilled trades. And as he sees it, something of a crisis. |
| 0:21.9 | Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. |
| 0:29.6 | Are really, is that really where we want all of our kids to go? |
| 0:33.4 | And then Jim Farley kind of just drops in this huge prediction. |
| 0:37.8 | Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S. |
| 0:43.4 | Half of all white-collar workers. |
| 0:45.1 | That is quite a pronouncement from the CEO of a major company. |
| 0:49.1 | And Jim Farley's not the only executive talking in these dramatic terms about how AI might upend the |
| 0:55.9 | economy as we know it. Like it could be a 21st century version of the Industrial Revolution. |
| 1:03.5 | Hello, and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Darym Woods. And I'm Waylon Wong. Normally, we're |
| 1:08.6 | co-host over at Planet Money's Daily Podcasts, The Indicator. |
| 1:12.0 | But today, we're here to bring you two stories about how AI is changing hiring. |
| 1:17.5 | Today on the show, we'll visit one slice of the job market where people are already feeling AI, the interview. |
| 1:24.7 | AI is screening candidates. We'll test it out and check the data that suggests |
| 1:29.1 | having an AI interview might not be all bad. But first, that big pronouncement. Will it get |
| 1:35.9 | harder for white-collar job seekers to find entry-level work? What then? stay tuned. |
| 1:59.8 | When it comes to AI and the future of work, we've seen evidence that AI is doing what Ford's CEO Jim Farley talked about. It's replacing jobs in fields like |
| 2:02.2 | coding and customer service. We've also seen how AI can help people be more productive or |
| 2:07.6 | efficient at work. We did a recent episode where we heard from listeners who are using AI for |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.