Jobs report warning signs

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paltry job creation was the headline item in the latest jobs report. But dig a little deeper, and warning signs show up all over: long-term unemployment, Black unemployment and Hispanic unemployment all rose in August. In this episode, why those stats could be proverbial canaries in the coal mine of the broader labor market. Plus: Industrial warehouse demand is down and a shipworker shortage could thwart Trump’s goal of reviving the commercial shipping industry.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Another disappointing jobs report will get you the headline numbers and a look at how those numbers play out in people's lives in real time.
0:10.6	Plus, the future of commercial shipping in the United States.
0:14.0	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
0:30.4	In Washington, D.C., I'm Kimberly Adams in for Kai Ristall.
0:32.2	It's Friday, September 5th.
0:33.2	Good to have you along.
0:43.9	We got a ton of economic data this week, including today's lackluster, shall we say, jobs report, not to mention all the political news driving economic headlines.
0:52.9	So let's dive right into a recap of the week that was with Heather Long, Chief Economist at Navy Federal Credit Union and Anna Swanson, a reporter at the New York Times.
0:53.6	Hey, ladies. Hi, Kimberly. Heather, I want to
0:56.8	start with you with this jobs report. What sectors were the hardest hit? Wow. Yeah, I've been saying
1:02.9	that this job market is going from frozen to cracking. And a lot of industries are now doing
1:08.8	layoffs. You ask which ones are hardest hit.
1:11.4	There were a lot.
1:12.5	Mining was shed jobs, construction, manufacturing, information.
1:17.5	And of course, the federal government, finance was pretty much flat.
1:22.1	Professional and business services have been laying off in the past three months.
1:26.3	To put it in perspective, in the past three months. To put it in perspective in the past
1:28.5	four months without health care, we would be down 140,000 jobs. So there just isn't much
1:35.9	hiring anywhere. And now it's turning into layoffs. Yeah. And I wanted to ask you about all the
1:41.9	revisions, which have been a big topic of contention, as we saw with the firing of the BLS, Commissioner.
1:47.4	What does this jobs report tell us about what the economy has actually been looking like these past few months?
1:54.0	Yeah, it's been curious.
	...

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