Shadowing Practice: Why So Many Americans Are Clinging To Their Jobs - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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The US economy has lost 1.2 million jobs since April 2024, and Americans are feeling the economic downturn. The quits rate, a measure of how often workers voluntarily leave their jobs, is now down to about 2% after fluctuating in the years since the pandemic, and employers are hiring at the slowest pace since 2013, excluding the pandemic dip and rise.
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The US economy has lost 1.2 million jobs since April 2024, and Americans are feeling the economic downturn. The quits rate, a measure of how often workers voluntarily leave their jobs, is now down to about 2% after fluctuating in the years since the pandemic, and employers are hiring at the slowest pace since 2013, excluding the pandemic dip and rise.
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I think people just want to stay with what is known and not take any risks right now.
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We use the term job clinging or job hugging to denote that they're staying put rather than moving on.
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I think for workers, that means more stress and less mobility.
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For companies, it looks like retention, but I think it hides disengagement.
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And then for the economy, it slows innovation just because people aren't moving and growing.
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Four out of five employees surveyed said they're not thriving at work.
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Another 58% of US professionals surveyed believe they have a wide range of skills that are being underutilized in their current roles.
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This all makes for a labor market that doesn't have a lot of churn in it.
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There's been a lot of anxiety about the direction of both the economy and the labor market.
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That is part of what's keeping people in jobs, and that could be a contributing factor to this at least perception of disengagement that is rising.
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Here's why so many Americans feel stuck in their jobs and what it means for the economy.
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Almost 1 in 5 job seekers surveyed said they're not confident that they will find a great job that they like.
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We're in a situation where that economic uncertainty is manifesting itself in fewer people quitting, as well as fewer organizations hiring.
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There's kind of less movement in the market right now.
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I think wage growth has cooled, job switching premiums have shrunk, and a lot of workers worry that their pay won't keep up with rising costs.
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So I think they're clinging to stability in a time of uncertainty.
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A lot of this does have to do with sentiment because companies are unsure about what's going to happen in the future. They see economic policies like tariffs. They're not quite sure how that's going to impact their bottom line. So they're nervous to hire people when they're not sure if they're going to have to turn around and then let people go in the near future.
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While layoffs have been steady since the pandemic, many companies are choosing alternatives, such as hiring freezes or letting attrition thin their workforce.
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What we did that is a little bit different. We don't do layoffs, we just don't hire.
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And because you have a natural attrition of 20% in a company like ours, it means that every year 20% leaves. And if you don't recruit, you just shrink, right? But what we've done is we promise all our employees, some of those savings we are going to accelerate their compensation with. So they have seen an increasing acceleration in their compensation due to all of the AI that we've done.
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Organizations are a little bit flatter now.
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So I think there's a kind of middle management layer that's going away.
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And so employees stay put, but they're a little bit disconnected from senior leadership sometimes, so they feel a little more directionless.
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I think that creates stress.
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Staying put may feel like the safer option, but it can come with risks for both workers and employers.
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If you cling to your job and you get a little bit too complacent, that's not good either, because then your employer can look at you as sort of low hanging fruit for layoffs in the event that they eventually need to do that. Career coaches recommend that you focus on career growth. Even if you're not able to find a new job, you focus on opportunities to improve your skills, do things within your organization to boost your career growth and your opportunities.
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In the event that a new job comes along later, there's some data also that points to wage growth or job hoppers has slowed down quite a bit.
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Economists still say that job hopping is probably the best way to raise your wages.
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A February 2025 study estimated that for a typical 1000 person company, employee disengagement adds up to about $5 million a year in lost productivity.
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The average disengaged worker could cost the company $4,000 over the course of a year, while an executive could cost $20,000.
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If they are less engaged, there's a risk to the overall productivity of that employee.
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So that's kind of that individual risk.
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But I think in many ways the bigger risk is the network effect that that will have is that if you have someone who is disengaged, not putting forth the same amount of effort, but is putting forth enough just to stay under the radar, that work still needs to get done.
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And so that ends up falling on teammates and other people across the organization so it can cause some additional stress.
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Even if people are engaged and people are putting forth their extra effort, they might have to go even above and beyond to make up for some of the teammates who are disengaged.
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Low turnover looks like stability for employers, but it can mask what I would describe as quiet quitting.
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Forty percent of workers in a recent survey feel directionless, with fewer managers in place.
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Therefore, they maybe spin their wheels. So I think that has impact on productivity.
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I think it has impact on employee satisfaction.
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Ultimately it can have impact on a company's ability to grow, innovate.
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And that translates into a cautious workforce, slows labor mobility, and labor mobility historically has been a sign of productivity and innovation.
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A disengaged workforce that's clinging to their job can have implications for the broader economy and labor market. Globally, low employee engagement is estimated to cost $9.6 trillion annually, or around 9% of global GDP.
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Labor mobility historically has been a sign of productivity and innovation, with fewer workers chasing new roles, wage growth flattens, and it just kind of reinforces a cycle of caution.
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And this can dampen consumer confidence.
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It can dampen the agility of organizations and their ability to innovate and be productive.
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Career coaches, economists, they all say that the labor market is very frozen right now. If you have a frozen labor market, there's not a lot of new opportunity being created that ends up hurting people who would otherwise be finding new opportunity in the market.
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Where you might start to see those types of dips is if we have a prolonged period where the labor market is challenging, a prolonged period where organizations aren't taking advantage of internal labor market movement to reengage their employees.
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That's when you may expect to see a bigger hit to productivity as well.
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This trend of workers staying put has also degraded job seekers bargaining power, which can lead to flattened wages.
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Employers have more power in the labor market.
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We've had labor standards erode in this country for decades. Things like the minimum wage has been sitting at the same level since 2009.
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Unionization rates in this country have declined dramatically over the last few decades.
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So when we think about the levers that workers have, it's pretty limited.
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Workers have lost a bit of their bargaining power in the current environment. They, just a couple of years ago, were able to quit their jobs easily and find a much higher paying gig.
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Now, hiring has slowed down.
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Job openings have come way down.
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Workers aren't quitting their jobs nearly as readily, and we see that wage growth has come down to in this environment. So workers can't command raises like they used to.
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In the three decades following World War II, we actually saw wages and productivity move in tandem.
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When you think about compensation for typical workers, they moved as productivity increased.
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What we've seen largely for the last three or four decades or so is that has diverged.
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And so as productivity has continued to increase, albeit at a little bit slower pace, I would say overall, workers wages have not kept up with those kinds of gains.
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New graduates and early career workers may struggle to find entry level jobs in the current market.
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Think about recent college graduates, for example. They're not finding that it's as easy to get a new job straight out of college an entry level role, especially because these are roles in which there's fear that AI is disrupting those jobs especially. Think about these are entry level jobs, kind of a stepping stone to more skilled positions down the road. It's also low hanging fruit for AI to come in and disrupt and take those jobs away from entry level workers.
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But this could also be an opportunity for innovative companies to pivot.
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If you think about the Gen Z workforce or entry level workforce, they're much more moldable, teachable. You know, you can reorient their skill sets. They're bright.
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They're sharp. I think they're street smart.
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They know how to use technology.
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That gives me a lot of hope.
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And so I think it isn't all doom and gloom.
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I think it's leaders need to think about how do I repurpose the workforce and then how do I get new entry or newer professionals, how do I retool their skill sets? How do I help them use AI to make better decisions, to be more productive, to do more at an earlier time in their careers?
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And so I think those who see it as an opportunity, if you can get the right leadership in place, the right lean workforce, leveraging technology and innovation, you can certainly grow and scale faster. And so I think there are a lot of opportunities, no doubt.
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Why practice speaking with this video?

Practicing speaking with the video titled "Why So Many Americans Are Clinging To Their Jobs" provides an excellent opportunity to enhance your English communication skills in a real-world context. This video highlights significant trends in the U.S. labor market, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty. By engaging with its content, you can learn to discuss employment topics, express opinions, and share insights on job security—important themes in today’s economy.

Utilizing the shadowing technique while watching this video allows you to mimic the speaker's intonation, rhythm, and pronunciation. This method is highly effective for those who want to improve English pronunciation and gain confidence in verbal communication. The insights offered about employee retention and job engagement can also serve as conversation starters, helping you to articulate your thoughts clearly and coherently.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

The speaker uses several key grammar structures and expressions that are particularly useful for advanced English learners. Here are a few examples:

  • Present Perfect Continuous: "Americans are feeling the economic downturn." This structure emphasizes ongoing actions or experiences, which is valuable when discussing current situations.
  • Conditional Clauses: "If you cling to your job and you get a little bit too complacent..." This conditional format helps articulate potential consequences, a vital skill for persuasive speaking.
  • Passive Voice: "Employee disengagement adds up to about $5 million a year in lost productivity." Using passive constructions can lend a formal tone to your discussions, especially when explaining statistics or facts.

Incorporating these structures into your own speaking can greatly enhance your fluency and help you express complex ideas effectively.

Common Pronunciation Traps

In this video, several words and phrases may pose challenges for non-native speakers, particularly with American accents:

  • Disengagement: The 'g' in “disengagement” is often slurred in natural speech. Practicing this word can help improve your clarity.
  • Economic: The stress often falls on the second syllable (eco-nomic) in American English, which can be tricky.
  • Wage Growth: The blend of 'w' and 'g' sounds can be challenging for some learners. Breaking it down in shadow speech practice will make you sound more fluent.

By focusing on these tricky pronunciations, learners can significantly enhance their ability to engage in discussions on economic topics. Using this video to learn English with YouTube and employing the shadowspeaks method will not only sharpen your speaking skills but also boost your confidence in professional settings.

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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