Speaker 1: These sees Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So the parade continues, not the
Speaker 1: earning parade, it's the jobs cuts parade, right, want to
Speaker 1: go to that parade. No, it's definitely a thing, though,
Speaker 1: and the latest we heard Creedy talk about it earlier
Speaker 1: saying it plans to cut about manufacturing jobs. And we
Speaker 1: had Forward and Spotify announcing layoffs yesterday. And this comes
Speaker 1: on the heels of recent cuts from Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce,
Speaker 1: Alphabet and more. It's definitely a thing. It is a thing.
Speaker 1: So the question is what's an employee to do if
Speaker 1: they've been laid off? How do you land your next
Speaker 1: job in an ever changing job market. We've got with
Speaker 1: us this afternoon. Dr Mona Moreshet, founder and CEO at Generation.
Speaker 1: This is an independent nonprofit. It was founded a few
Speaker 1: years ago by McKenzie to help prepare people for jobs.
Speaker 1: She joins us via zoom from Washington, d C. Dr morshad,
Speaker 1: good to have you with us this afternoon. I want
Speaker 1: to talk more about Generation just a second. But first
Speaker 1: of all, I want to get your thoughts on on
Speaker 1: what we're seeing in terms of layoffs. And I want
Speaker 1: to look at this in the context of you know,
Speaker 1: we're still in a jobs market that's you know, really
Speaker 1: really tired. I mean unemployment rate, it's historically low still absolutely, UM.
Speaker 1: So there are a number of things happening right now. UM.
Speaker 1: Obviously we're all waking up to headlines every day where
Speaker 1: there are slews of job cuts which are being announced. UM.
Speaker 1: That has a couple of ramifications. UM. First of all,
Speaker 1: obviously it means adversity for those individuals and those families.
Speaker 1: But what we're also saying is that there's a slowdown
Speaker 1: in new higher vacancies as well, UM, in addition to
Speaker 1: the job cuts. And so there are two forces happening
Speaker 1: at the moment um. For those individuals who are to
Speaker 1: a slowdown in new higher vacancies, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: So for postings for new hires, there's a slowdown in those.
Speaker 1: So there's both cuts as well as a slowdown and hiring.
Speaker 1: So it affects two populations, those currently in jobs who
Speaker 1: are losing them and those who are applying a fresh
Speaker 1: to new jobs. And so we are starting to see data,
Speaker 1: at least in the US of UM it taking three
Speaker 1: to six months for people to find jobs in certain pockets.
Speaker 1: Now that's a certain picture. Now important to recognize the
Speaker 1: headlines that we see in the US do not apply
Speaker 1: equally across the world. So we're also seeing other geographies
Speaker 1: where there's been no slowdown at all in terms of hiring.
Speaker 1: And we're also seeing that um although for tech jobs
Speaker 1: in particular, you might find slowdowns in tech companies, but
Speaker 1: there are other companies and other sectors. So it might
Speaker 1: be in the financial sector, it might be in manufacturing
Speaker 1: who are looking to hire for tech roles, and so
Speaker 1: that's another area of opportunity. Well, right, I mean, does
Speaker 1: this remind you at all of another job cycle h
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight? My seriously, seriously, Well, hopefully we
Speaker 1: don't reach that. I mean, so look, I think that
Speaker 1: what's what's important is to recognize this is all cyclical, right,
Speaker 1: and this cycle will take about two years to work
Speaker 1: itself out if if history is any indicator. Um. So
Speaker 1: we're seeing a crunch and then again slow hiring, um.
Speaker 1: But then it will open up again. And and very
Speaker 1: importantly for job seekers is looking for those pockets where
Speaker 1: there is continued hiring and and that may not be
Speaker 1: in the tech sector. So it could be tech roles
Speaker 1: in other sectors. So is it safe to say, and
Speaker 1: just to kind of a little bit of a conclusion here,
Speaker 1: when we look at the data points that come from
Speaker 1: the government and elsewhere on the on the job market,
Speaker 1: which continue to show strength in the job market, are
Speaker 1: you saying it's really not the true picture or the
Speaker 1: full picture. It's a partial picture, right you know? So
Speaker 1: again there is a partial when you look at which
Speaker 1: sectors are hiring versus where is there a slowdown? It's
Speaker 1: partial in terms of is it a global phenomena or
Speaker 1: is it a us phenomena? Um. And then there is
Speaker 1: also a question I would say of demographics um, because
Speaker 1: one thing that I will emphasize is that age matters
Speaker 1: when it comes to hiring. Um. We've done research and
Speaker 1: others have done research as well when you look at
Speaker 1: what happens when when you are aged forty plus, it
Speaker 1: becomes much harder to find a job. That is why
Speaker 1: the majority of the long term unemployed six months or
Speaker 1: more are age forty plus. And that's across the O
Speaker 1: E c D. So age matters here too and will
Speaker 1: impact unfortunately due to pervasive agism that we consistently see
Speaker 1: across employers and across geographies of how fast can you
Speaker 1: get yourself back into a job. So what's the focus
Speaker 1: for you at generation in terms of the types of
Speaker 1: the people who find themselves without jobs placing them age range? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So at Generation we support adults of all ages UM
Speaker 1: so from eighteen years old to plus UM and our
Speaker 1: learners are typically so first, they typically have a secondary
Speaker 1: school degree background UM over half our female the majority
Speaker 1: have dependence UM. And they we are either placing them
Speaker 1: into their first job or we are supporting those who
Speaker 1: are aged forty plus and who may, for example, have
Speaker 1: been spending the last ten years working in retail or
Speaker 1: in logistics and supporting to put them into green jobs
Speaker 1: or into tech jobs or whatever it might be. UM.
Speaker 1: So what we do is train and place learners into
Speaker 1: careers that otherwise would have been inaccessible. So I want
Speaker 1: to go back to something that you said earlier about
Speaker 1: this being reminding you of of two thousand eight. In
Speaker 1: you know, if we go back to two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: the unemployment rate was right now it's at three point
Speaker 1: six percent. So what else about the environment right now
Speaker 1: that you're seeing out there tells you that this is
Speaker 1: similar to back then. I'm just not seeing it. There's
Speaker 1: um an element of what I'll just call copycat behavior UM,
Speaker 1: which is when employers start to see that some companies
Speaker 1: are doing layoffs, it starts to make everyone much more conservative. UM.
Speaker 1: And that is and that is with regards to new hires.
Speaker 1: And so the question for us is because we are
Speaker 1: often placing people into entry level roles irrespective of which
Speaker 1: profession it's in, and so you start to see it
Speaker 1: taking longer to get people into rolls. So it's not
Speaker 1: that they will not make it, but you know it.
Speaker 1: Whereas before we could support someone within three months, it
Speaker 1: might now take six months, um. And so, and we're
Speaker 1: seeing this also in the reticence of employers to also
Speaker 1: commit to saying, you know, these are the vacancies which
Speaker 1: we're going to have the month or that month. Everyone
Speaker 1: is watching and waiting to see what happens. In addition,
Speaker 1: the I M F recently came out to say that
Speaker 1: you know, a third of the world's economies are going
Speaker 1: to go into recession this year, which is a big deal. UM.
Speaker 1: So twenty three is very much a watch and wait
Speaker 1: and observed. You know, mona earlier you said the government date,
Speaker 1: it's a partial picture of what's going on in the
Speaker 1: US labor market. So having said that, based on what
Speaker 1: you're saying, it sounds to me that very soon we
Speaker 1: might see some of this show up. Is that your expectations.
Speaker 1: The expectation is absolutely that over the coming months we're
Speaker 1: going to see not just for the U. S economy,
Speaker 1: but for the world, how resilient is the hiring going
Speaker 1: to be. And it will obviously nothing will ever be
Speaker 1: true across the entire world, but it'll be in pockets. Um.
Speaker 1: So you'll find some sectors. You know, clearly the tech
Speaker 1: sector is heavily affected right now, um, But you and
Speaker 1: not see that same trend in green jobs or in healthcare.
Speaker 1: And so this is why it's so important to look
Speaker 1: at the picture sector by sector and not just economy wide.
Speaker 1: Older workers. Do we need them? Absolutely, we need them? Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think the age forty plus population is
Speaker 1: a remarkable asset that should be much more employed than
Speaker 1: is the case. You have a bunch of people around
Speaker 1: the news room and our kids who are listening to
Speaker 1: the like when did forty five become old? Because when
Speaker 1: you look at the when when you look at government
Speaker 1: stats the majority of the long term unemployed or age
Speaker 1: forty five plus? What it? As soon as you know,
Speaker 1: I say this to you as a fifty one year old.
Speaker 1: I recently had a birthday, Um, and so thank you.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because you know, we talk about aging demographics
Speaker 1: and the impact it can have on a country's economy. Right.
Speaker 1: We've talked at it, certainly with Japan, We've talked about
Speaker 1: it with the US. Increasingly we've talked about it even
Speaker 1: with China, who's seeing an aging population in the costs
Speaker 1: that that has in in so many different ways. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not pretty sure what the smart question?
Speaker 1: I mean, should we be putting these people to work?
Speaker 1: Isn't that better for the global economy? Or tim What
Speaker 1: do you think? Well, I have one question for m
Speaker 1: on a ten seconds. Okay, if somebody really young is
Speaker 1: listening right now, thinking about what they're studying in college
Speaker 1: or studying in trade school, what should it be? Uh?
Speaker 1: I get this question frequently now, so look, I'm going
Speaker 1: to give up practice to answer, which really very quickly.
Speaker 1: It's about how quickly you learn. It is often not
Speaker 1: about what you learn. I's how quickly you learn, Like
Speaker 1: that interesting alright, some really thoughts in terms of today's
Speaker 1: labor market. Dr Monamore said, founder and CEO of Generation
Speaker 1: via Zoom from Washington, d C.