Shadowing Practice: The Entry-Level Job Crisis - Learn English Speaking with Video

For the past three years, U.S unemployment has been slowly creeping upwards.

4.3% may not sound all that bad,

but the problem is highly concentrated among one specific population — young people.

New entrants to the labor market — mostly recent college graduates — represent 85% of the rise in unemployment since mid-2023,

according to Oxford Economics.

85%.

In a cruel twist of irony, the class of 2026 enrolled in college back in 2022, a year of record high job openings.

Seeing soaring wages and ubiquitous now-hiring signs,

they racked up thousands of dollars in student loans on the then-safe assumption work would be plentiful.

Now, four years later, they find themselves graduating into an unprecedented entry-level job crisis.

The average number of applications required to secure an entry-level job tripled between 2022 and 2025 alone.

From 1 to 300.

Imagine writing 300 cover letters, all for a mere 50% chance of finding a job.

And more than half of all applicants now spend at least six months looking for work.

As surprise becomes frustration, becomes desperation, some even resort to paying for jobs.

In a recent Bloomberg story, parents admit spending as much as $50,000 on career coaches to get their adult children out of the house.

Another article explains a new trend called reverse recruiting,

wherein applicants pay a recruiter thousands of dollars a month to help introduce them to potential employers.

are giving up entirely.

Grad school applications are surging as young people opt to roll the dice again, betting double or nothing that more education will solve their problems.

Now, some of this is just the inevitable long-term trend we've previously covered.

As the share of Americans with a college degree has increased, its value as a differentiator, naturally, has declined.

But the abruptness and scale of this crisis suggests there's also something else going on.

Sponsored by Planet Wild, where you can help make a concrete measurable difference for the planet.

By bringing back endangered animals, supporting oceans, and reviving forests around the world.

Now, the obvious culprit, of course, is AI.

At first glance, the data seems to confirm this.

AI, in its current form, is most relevant to entry-level, white-collar office jobs.

The exact kind that are now hardest to come by.

Tech and programming jobs in particular have been among the hardest hit by recent layoffs, and are also the tasks that AI tools most excel at.

Besides, companies are quite open about this.

Amazon, for instance, cited AI when it laid off 14,000 corporate positions last fall.

Still, there's good reason for skepticism.

For one, companies understand their audience — investors.

Mass layoffs can indicate trouble, or they can indicate efficiency.

So it's not surprising that Amazon tried to make the case for the latter, saying in a press release that AI was enabling it to quote, innovate much faster than ever before.

Gesturing vaguely toward a macroeconomic trend or technology is a blameless,

largely non-falsifiable explanation for what could otherwise look like incompetence or mismanagement.

But the biggest flaw in the AI explanation is that we aren't actually seeing that many layoffs.

In fact, quite the opposite.

Compared to the three years before the pandemic, about a hundred thousand fewer people are laid off in a typical month today.

Layoffs are noticeably down, not up.

And strangely, so is everything.

Hiring, firing, quitting, it's all way down.

So how do we make sense of this frozen labor market?

One where the good metrics and the bad alike have fallen.

Everything begins to make sense once we zoom out a little bit further.

For clarity, let's also normalize these few months during the onset of the pandemic, when much of the country exited and quickly re-entered the labor market.

Recall that, after the initial shock, consumer demand actually spiked.

Americans received thousands of dollars in stimulus checks, at the same time they were stuck at home looking for distractions.

They adopted a new puppy, or three, upgraded their home office, and stockpiled essentials.

To keep up with all this demand, companies needed more help than ever.

Yet that help became harder to find.

The pandemic drastically increased what economists call the reservation wage, the minimum people are willing to work for.

Death and tragedy forced salarymen to reflect on their life's priorities.

Stimulus checks decreased the burden of unemployment.

Meanwhile, health risks and regulations increased the costs of in-person interaction.

As the balance of power shifted from employer to employee, the latter quite sensibly exploited this leverage.

Each and every week for two whole years, nearly a million Americans quit their jobs, in what became known as the Great Resignation.

Companies responded to this dilemma, that is, extremely high demand for labor,

yet extremely low supply, by treating it as the scarce and valuable commodity it was.

They tried to hoard it.

Better to have too much of it than not enough.

Only unused labor, after all, was labor withheld from your competitors.

Thus, the unprecedented boom in hiring you see here.

More people were hired between January and November of 2021 than this entire period between 2014 and 2020.

Six years' worth of net hiring took place in the span of just 10 months.

Eventually, however, life returned to normal, and companies found themselves with all this extra labor they no longer needed.

In more ordinary times, they may have simply laid them off.

Some did.

There have been a few high-profile layoffs in the tech industry, for example.

That's not surprising.

As you can see, Big Tech hired even more aggressively during the Great Resignation than other industries, here.

Which means it's now due for a much bigger correction.

This, by the way, was the release of ChatGPT, notably after the correction had already begun.

Although that's not to say AI hasn't played some role in more recent tech layoffs.

Programming is one area where AI tools have had a more direct, immediate, and measurable impact.

Overall, however, layoffs have been down.

And you can see why.

Only a few short years ago, companies paid a sizable premium to hoard the labor they have now.

They're scared to give it up and risk being caught in the same unenviable position.

Especially because they're unsure about the future.

Hiring, you see, is surprisingly expensive.

Even a minimum wage service position may cost thousands of dollars to fill.

Job postings, background checks, interviews, orientations, legal costs add up fast.

When you add in the extended training periods required of skilled, white-collar work, and the lost productivity of their colleagues doing the training,

it can take many months or even years for a new hire to turn net positive.

In other words, hiring is ultimately a prediction about the future.

Where will the economy be in 3, 6, or 12 months when this new worker starts paying for themselves?

And as of now, companies have no idea where the economy will be tomorrow, never mind in 12 months.

Since the two main candidates in the 24 presidential election had such starkly different priorities,

hiring managers were likely waiting until then to see what would happen.

But the uncertainty never subsided.

Instead, they watched as tariffs were repeatedly applied, then struck down.

wars were started and the global oil market was disrupted.

The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index is at its third-highest point since the Federal Reserve began reporting in 1985,

eclipsed, and even then only briefly, by the first months of the pandemic and the Great Recession.

American companies are so unsure about whether they should invest in the near future

that they're beginning to hire an increasing number of temporary workers.

100

This is not, in other words, really about young people or entry-level jobs.

101

The entire labor market is frozen.

102

Think of it as a game of musical chairs.

103

Employers and employees alike are so terrified that the number of chairs is declining, that the opportunities are scarce,

104

and so uncertain about when the music will stop next, that they're paralyzed in place, whether they like their current chair or not.

105

The average American believes they have only a 46% chance of securing a new job within three months

106

if they were to quit today.

107

Likewise, many companies assume AI is on the verge of reshaping their industry, but aren't yet sure how or when.

108

While very few outside the tech sector have made cuts as a direct result of AI, many more have frozen hiring in anticipation of that disruption.

109

These are brutal conditions for those unhappy with the chair they've got.

110

If you don't like your current job, you're sorta stuck.

111

That's a terrible feeling.

112

And employers know this.

113

Some are capitalizing on this anxiety,

114

taking the opportunity to roll back many of the worker-friendly policies won back in 2022 during the Great Resignation, when workers had the upper hand.

115

Everything from vacation days to healthcare and remote work flexibility is being reduced.

116

The share of U.S employers offering paid family leave is now decreasing.

117

A few are even introducing new rules, like making their staff lock their personal phones in secure pouches during the workday.

118

But things are far, far worse for those with no chair to begin with.

119

With so little churn in the labor market, fresh graduates are locked outside, waiting, with little to do as the interest on their student loans accumulates.

120

It's no wonder many young people aren't exactly big fans of AI.

121

They're already paying for the price of its anticipated disruption, even where companies aren't yet benefiting from it at their expense.

122

So how does this end?

123

One possibility, of course, is that it ends very abruptly, with a recession.

124

We've seen this movie before.

125

Rising unemployment depresses economic confidence, which drives down consumer spending, which in turn reinforces the unemployment.

126

Throw AI into the mix, widespread layoffs either from actual disruption or the bursting of an AI bubble,

127

and there's no telling how bad things could get.

128

But, there's some reason to think this time might be different.

129

And not in a good way.

130

Take another look at this graph of unemployment, now going back to 1956.

131

Clearly, booms and busts are quite common.

132

They always follow the same pattern.

133

suddenly skyrockets, here, then slowly falls, here, until the cycle repeats.

134

But not this time.

135

Something strange has happened over the past three years.

136

For the first time, unemployment isn't skyrocketing, nor is it slowly falling.

137

It's just steadily creeping upwards.

138

Which suggests a second, perhaps even scarier possibility.

139

That we're not on the verge of a recession.

140

That this is just a new, long-term normal.

141

That the U.S labor market is becoming less dynamic.

142

That uncertainty is taking root, making Americans more risk-averse in general.

143

The United States is one of the only countries in the world with at-will employment.

144

Meaning employers can fire anyone, at any time, for any reason, with just a few exceptions like racial discrimination.

145

You can devote your entire 40-year career to a single company, and unless your contract says otherwise,

146

they can tell you to clean out your office by lunchtime on any random Tuesday.

147

Almost no one is truly secure.

148

The rationale for this policy is a simple trade-off.

149

On one hand, American workers are fired more often and less compassionately.

150

On the other hand, they're also hired faster and in greater numbers.

151

The very fact that companies know they can quickly

152

and easily let someone go enables them to so quickly and eagerly bring them in.

153

In the short term, yes, this churn is incredibly disruptive.

154

Losing your job is one of the most traumatic things that can afflict a person, especially given that it's tied to your healthcare here in the States.

155

But in the long term, in a well-functioning economy, this leads to better matching between employer and employee.

156

The latter can freely quit a job they don't like, knowing they can quickly find a new one.

157

And employers can find the right candidate, increasing their productivity.

158

This has surely played some role in America's unparalleled economic success.

159

companies are bolder, faster, and more innovative than their European or Japanese competitors.

160

It's not always a fair system, in fact, it's often quite barbaric.

161

But there's at least an argument to be made that the very real benefits outweigh the very real costs, even to any individual worker.

162

But that trade-off is now unraveling.

163

The cost of at-will employment hasn't changed.

164

The law still gives employers the freedom to swiftly dispose of their workers.

165

Yet the benefits, the freedom employees have to quickly and easily change jobs, are quickly disappearing.

166

That leaves us with the worst of both worlds.

167

Getting fired is easy, getting hired increasingly less so.

168

We're left with all of the vulnerability, yet too little of the freedom.

169

And this is more than a mere annoyance.

170

It threatens the very foundation of America's incredible economic success.

171

Consider why American consumers spend so much and save so little.

172

We're confident about the future, and until recently, rightly so.

173

Being secure in and optimistic about our careers, we take bold risks, shop compulsively, and invest in our futures.

174

The American addiction to high-interest credit cards,

175

student loans, and 30-year mortgages seems incredibly reckless given how quickly we can lose our livelihoods.

176

This faith in our ability to repay our massive debt decades into the future only makes sense

177

when you account for how easily we can find new work.

178

opportunity abounds.

179

But what happens when that's no longer true?

180

The University of Michigan has been measuring consumer sentiment since 1960, and as of this year, it's now at an all-time low.

181

Not during the lowest depths of the Great Recession, pandemic, or even 1970s oil crisis,

182

when gas was rationed and the federal speed limit was lowered to 50 miles an hour to save on energy, energy, were Americans as pessimistic as they are today?

183

This is truly uncharted territory.

184

And the longer this uncertainty continues, the more households will factor this into their spending.

185

Meanwhile, the less we spend, the less wealth and opportunity will be created.

186

Today, we face an entry-level job crisis.

187

But this should concern all of us, because tomorrow, we could be facing much, much more.

188

And if you're feeling pessimistic, Planet Wild offers the perfect antidote.

189

Planet Wild is a community of over 25,000 members that funds different organizations each month to help solve a specific environmental problem.

190

Whether it's reintroducing a species to its habitat, restoring a forest, or cleaning up the world's oceans.

191

They then document their progress on YouTube, so you and I can see the impact we're making.

192

After all, what better way to handle today's uncertainty than by making a certain difference in the world, all for less than a cup of coffee.

193

What I love about Planet Wild is

194

that it replaces giant impossible goals like achieving net-zero emissions —

195

which frankly sound to me a bit idealistic — with concrete achievable projects called missions.

196

First, they identify a specific problem.

197

In the February mission, for instance, they explained how grizzly bears in North America struggle in fragmented wildlife areas,

198

posing a great danger both to their lives and to ours.

199

And second, they tell you exactly how the partner organization is helping, and the exact amount contributed by the Planet Wild community.

200

In this case, the project was to connect those areas by building tunnels

201

and fencing systems on a huge wildlife corridor from Yellowstone to the Yukon, allowing bears and all kinds of different species to cross highways safely.

202

The Planet Wild community contributed a total of 50,056 euros, and we got to watch it happen right here on YouTube.

203

Planet Wild is committed to never making a profit from its rewilding membership, and already has loads of successful projects under its belt.

204

If you're ready to start making a difference, you can click the link in the description or scan the QR code on-screen and start giving whatever amount you can, big or small.

205

The first hundred people to join with the code POLY6 will even have their first month paid for,

206

so you can try it for 30 days and cancel any time you need.

207

Thanks again to Planet Wild for partnering with us for this video.

📺 Mismo canal

Is Amazon Too Big?

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

The Hardest Test in China

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepHigh School Students

✨ Recomendar Video

92 oraciones

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel C1 se basa en el vídeo “The Entry-Level Job Crisis”. Las palabras que más se repiten: companies, month, labor. Este vídeo tiene 206 frases y 2715 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 19:35. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 139 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 82 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
layoff sustantivo		despido, recorte de personal
uncertainty sustantivo	/ʌnˈsɜːtənti/	incertidumbre, incerteza
recession sustantivo	/ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/	recesión
disruption sustantivo	/dɪsˈɹʌpʃən/	quebranto, incidente
churn verbo	/t͡ʃɝn/	batir, agitar
horde sustantivo	/hɔɹd/	horda
measurable adjetivo	/ˈmɛʒəɹəbəl/	medible, mensurable
pessimistic adjetivo	/ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk/	pesimista, agorero
scarce adjetivo	/ˈskɛɚs/	escaso
applicant sustantivo	/ˈæp.lə.kɪnt/	solicitante, peticionario
verge sustantivo	/vɜːd͡ʒ/	arcén, borde
upwards adverbio	/ˈʌpwɚdz/	hacia arriba, arriba
competitor sustantivo	/kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/	contrincante
unprecedented adjetivo	/ʌnˈpɹɛsɪdɛntɪd/	sin precedente[s], inaudito
stimulus sustantivo	/ˈstɪm.jə.ləs/	estímulo, apetite

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
add up verbo		adicionar
clean out verbo		desvalijar
clean up verbo		limpiar
give up verbo		rendirse, entregar
keep up with verbo		seguir, ir al paso
lay off verbo		despedir, destituir
roll back verbo		revertir
zoom out verbo	/ˌzuːm ˈaʊt/	alejar el zoom, quitar zoom (el)

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	has been · has increased · have been
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	are laid · were stuck · were hired

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 26 contracciones y formas reducidas, como they're, aren't, we're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: recession /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/, disruption /dɪsˈɹʌpʃən/, measurable /ˈmɛʒəɹəbəl/, correction /kəˈɹɛkʃən/, emission /ɪˈmɪʃ.ən/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, measurable /ˈmɛʒəɹəbəl/, pessimistic /ˌpɛ.səˈmɪs.tɪk/, competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/, unprecedented /ʌnˈpɹɛsɪdɛntɪd/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: scarce /ˈskɛɚs/, stimulus /ˈstɪm.jə.ləs/, steadily /ˈstɛdɪli/, sponsor /ˈspɒn.səː/, scan /skæn/
/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: verge /vɜːd͡ʒ/, leverage /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/, investor /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/, inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: upwards /ˈʌpwɚdz/, zoom /zuːm/, reservation /ˌɹɛz.ɚˈveɪ.ʃən/, likewise /ˈlaɪkˌwaɪz/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como layoff, uncertainty, recession.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: The Entry-Level Job Crisis - Learn English Speaking with Video

Is Amazon Too Big?

The Hardest Test in China

Why Even Harvard’s Smartest Graduates Can’t Get a Job Now

【English Podcast】Is a College Degree Still Worth It? — 4 Things to Consider

How I Would Start Cybersecurity in 2026 (If Starting From Zero)

The (Overdue) Collapse of AI Layoffs (here's the proof)

If Companies Are Desperate For Workers... Why Can Nobody Find A Job?

secrets about landing your dream job

GATHERING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

就活解禁の３月「超売り手市場」で就活生×採用側のニーズは【ぎゅっと】（2026年3月2日OA）

To Save the Economy... We’re About to Break It

The Tragic Reality of Brain Drain on Poor Countries | Economics Explained

What is recruitment process? | HRM | From A Business Professor

Why Stability Feels Risky in Modern Careers | C1 English Shadowing