Shadowing Practice: Who should new grads boo more? AI or remote work? | The Indicator - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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NPR.
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This is the indicator from Planet Money, also known as the 2026 Ambie Award winning Best Business Podcast.
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I'm Adrian Ma.
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I'm Darian Woods.
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And I'm Waylon Wong.
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And it is Jobs Friday.
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It's the day each month where we look at the latest government jobs report
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and we check in with how American workers are doing.
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That is right.
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And according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in May remained at 4.3%, so same as the past couple of months,
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and employers added 172,000 jobs.
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That's a pretty good number overall.
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And, you know, this is the third month in a row that employers have added a decent number of jobs.
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That's true, but we always like to dig beneath the headline numbers and add some detail to the picture.
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Computer, enhance!
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So after the break, we'll explain what is driving job growth right now, whether AI is really to blame for young people struggling to land their first job,
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and how the unemployment rate for black workers could be a signal of what's to come.
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Edward Jones, member SIPC.
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We're looking at this month's jobs report.
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Why don't you kick us off, Adrian Maher?
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So like we said, May was a strong month for jobs.
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172,000 jobs added.
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And in fact, this latest report includes some revised estimates for the months of March and April.
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They were revised upwards as the BLS got more data.
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And between those two months, that means employers added 93,000 more jobs than was previously reported.
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And that's on top of what were already strong hiring numbers.
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All right, so we've got three months in a row of strong hiring.
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So maybe, perhaps, the labor market is starting to shake off this low hire, low fire sluggishness we've been seeing for a lot of the past year.
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That could be.
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And a couple more interesting notes from this report.
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It says most of the jobs added last month were in the leisure and hospitality sector, local government and health care.
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And the average hourly wage was $37.53 an hour.
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That is 3.4% higher than a year ago, but not quite enough to keep up with inflation, which recently clocked in at 3.8%.
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So this Shops report has made me think
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that it's going to be pretty unlikely
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that the Federal Reserve is going to decide to cut interest rates in the near future.
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I mean, this is a good point, right?
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Because as we know, President Trump has been jawboning the Fed to lower interest rates to try and juice the economy.
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But the job market is gaining steam and inflation, rising prices for gas, groceries and other things.
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That's really the growing concern right now.
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And the Fed cutting interest rates would just add to inflation.
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So in this environment, the case for an interest rate cut makes even less sense.
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And some economists might even see cause for a rate hike.
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Interesting environment for a new Fed chair to be stepping in.
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Thank you for that, Adrian.
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And now we're going to dive into some specific groups, Jerry and Woods.
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I was particularly interested in the unemployment rate for younger workers.
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Right.
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A lot of young people have just graduated from trade school or college, so this is going to be what they're obsessed with right now.
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And what their parents are probably going to be thinking about?
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Yeah, so those parents will be relieved because the jobs report showed
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that the unemployment rate of Americans aged 20 to 24 decreased a little to 7.2% in May.
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Now, historically, that's kind of average, but it doesn't include all of the people who think
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that the jobs market is so bad that they're just going to go back to school.
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Younger people have been feeling frustrated about the jobs market for a few years now.
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I mean, judging by the sort of viral clips of commencement speeches, you would think that this is all because of AI being the big villain here.
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Yeah, here's former Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaking at the University of Arizona.
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Time magazine selected its person of the year for 2025, and this time it was the architects of artificial intelligence.
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Interesting.
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So today we stand on this grid.
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Oh man, they're just, they're really not having it.
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They are not.
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And there has been a smattering of research over the last year supporting those boos.
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It says AI is to blame for low hiring rates for junior workers.
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Eric Schmidt should have pivoted and started just reading out those studies.
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He could have gotten the crowd back on his side.
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what he needed were two new studies which are casting doubt on the AI theory.
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They have accused another big force for the death of junior hires, remote work.
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Oh, okay, that's interesting.
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So this predates the whole AI boom.
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It does, but it's actually very similarly timed as people kind of figured out
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that remote work did have some friction in the gears of running a business.
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So the first paper from two economists in the UK looked at hundreds of millions of hires
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and jobs postings all across the US and other countries from 2017 to 2035.
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Now they couldn't find much evidence that AI was killing that many junior jobs, even in tech.
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But what they did find was that jobs
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that were more likely to have remote workers were less likely to hire people with limited experience.
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The second paper was from three economists in the US.
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In findings released this week, they conclude that nearly two-thirds of the recent rise in unemployment among young college graduates is because of remote work.
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So employers are basically telling Gen Z, like, no thanks, don't worry about applying.
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Gen Z need not apply.
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The idea is that onboarding is much harder in a remote work world,
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and so hiring managers are leaning towards getting people that already know the workplace basics.
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They know the on-the-job skills and how to communicate with others, being proactive, all that stuff that face-to-face makes easier.
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I do see that rationale.
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I also think that if you take the time now to train Gen Zers about how to do this kind of work,
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you know, there could be a payoff later that maybe employers aren't thinking of.
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Absolutely.
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And training seems to be easier face-to-face.
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Could you use AI? to train?
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Maybe AI is the savior.
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Let's revisit this in five years.
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Thank you, Darren, for that bit of insight into younger workers.
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Waylon, why don't you go next?
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Okay, I am here to talk about another area of concern that could potentially signal trouble for the broader labor market, and that is black workers.
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This is a group where their unemployment rate has historically been higher than the main number, and this was definitely the case in May.
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The jobless rate for black workers was 6.6% compared with 4.3% for all workers.
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That said, the 6.6% number is an improvement.
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It's down from April and it's the lowest rate in a year.
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So hopefully it keeps moving in that direction.
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Yeah.
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And black women in particular really felt the effects of the mass layoffs
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and buyouts we saw with the federal workforce last year.
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I read an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
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That's a think tank that advocates for low and middle income working families.
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And the EPI says that black women suffered the greatest job losses in 2025.
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Its analysis also shows that the overall net loss was driven entirely by cuts in public sector jobs.
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I wonder whether some of these federal workers finding new jobs might be why the black unemployment rate went down.
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Yeah, it's encouraging data.
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But, you know, if the black unemployment rate were to go back up, that could be a bad signal.
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There was some other research that caught my eye recently.
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It comes from Kevin Rins, an economist at the Cleveland Fed.
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And he determined that when the unemployment rate for black workers goes up, it tends to be followed by higher overall unemployment.
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Right.
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So that's what they call a leading indicator.
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Yeah.
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According to his analysis, if the black unemployment rate goes up one percentage point,
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you can expect the overall unemployment rate to go up about 0.2 percentage points in four to seven months.
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That's super interesting.
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We hear about recession indicators all the time.
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And this one And going back to basics, the unemployment rate for black workers seems like it has some empirical backing to it.
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Absolutely, yeah.
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Just back to basics.
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This episode was produced by Corey Bridges with engineering by Robert Rodriguez.
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It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and Vito Emanuel.
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Context & Background
The video titled "Who should new grads boo more? AI or remote work?" features a discussion among Adrian Ma, Darian Woods, and Waylon Wong on the monthly jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The speakers delve into the current state of the American job market, exploring monthly unemployment rates, job growth sectors, and potential implications for new graduates facing challenges in securing their first job. Their engaging dialogue not only presents statistical data but also emphasizes the impact of technological advancements such as artificial intelligence on employment opportunities.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
Here are five key phrases from the transcript that can enhance your daily English communication skills:
- "The unemployment rate remained at 4.3%." - A useful phrase for discussing employment statistics.
- "Employers added 172,000 jobs." - A way to articulate job creation data effectively.
- "What is driving job growth right now?" - A question that can facilitate conversation about economic trends.
- "This is your time to turn that momentum into more." - Encouraging phrase that signifies the potential for personal growth.
- "The leisure and hospitality sector." - A common sector reference that can be useful when discussing industries.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To improve your English speaking skills using this video, consider following these steps for effective shadow speech practice:
- Watch the video without subtitles: First, familiarize yourself with the context. Pay attention to the speakers’ tone and pronunciation.
- Listen with subtitles: Next, enable English subtitles to catch any phrases you might have missed. This will help you understand the dialogue better.
- Choose a short segment: Select a 30-second clip of the conversation that interests you. Focus on a specific section to practice.
- Repeat after the speakers: Use a shadowing app or any recording device to mimic the speakers’ intonation and rhythm. It’s crucial to replicate their speech patterns to improve fluency.
- Record and compare: Play back your recording alongside the original to notice areas for improvement. Adjust your pronunciation and pacing as necessary.
Engaging regularly with such content through learn English with YouTube not only enhances vocabulary but also prepares you for real-life conversations and interviews. Utilizing a shadowing site or app can further support your journey in mastering English through shadow speech practice. Remember, the key to improvement lies in consistency and active participation!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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