Cornering The Job Market
The job market is changing faster than most people realize. Headlines are noisy, data is often misunderstood, and bad advice spreads quickly. Cornering the Job Market cuts through the confusion with clear, data-backed insights on what is actually happening in hiring, work, careers, and the labor market now, and in the future.
Hosted by Pete Newsome, founder of one of America's top staffing and recruiting firms, this podcast breaks down the labor market from both sides of the table. Job seekers learn how employers are really making decisions. Hiring leaders and executives gain perspective on talent supply, candidate behavior, and where the market is heading next.
Each episode translates complex labor data into plain English and connects the dots between hiring trends, economic signals, AI adoption, wages, layoffs, and workforce strategy. The focus is not hype or fear; with context, clarity, and practical takeaways you can use immediately.
What you will hear on the show
- Weekly breakdowns of the U.S. job market using trusted data sources
- What hiring numbers actually mean for real people and real companies
- How AI is reshaping jobs, hiring, and career paths
- Why some roles stay in demand even during slowdowns
- What employers are prioritizing and what candidates often miss
- Honest conversations about layoffs, wage pressure, job hopping, and stability
- Tactical advice for job seekers at every career stage
- Strategic insight for HR leaders, hiring managers, and executives
Who this podcast is for
- Professionals navigating a competitive or uncertain job market
- Early and mid-career workers trying to future-proof their careers
- HR leaders and talent acquisition teams
- Hiring managers and executives making workforce decisions
- Anyone who wants clear, credible insight into where work is headed
Why Cornering the Job Market is different
This show is built on real hiring experience, not theory. The insights come from thousands of real job searches, real placements, and real conversations with employers and candidates across industries like IT, finance, healthcare, marketing, HR, and engineering.
The goal is simple. Help you understand the job market well enough to make better decisions, whether you are hiring, job searching, or planning your next move.
New episodes
New episodes drop regularly with timely commentary on breaking labor market news, hiring trends, and workplace shifts. Subscribe so you do not miss an update, especially when the market changes quickly.
Cornering The Job Market
Breaking Job News: Is AI Coming for Your Job? Here's Which Ones Are Safe
Is AI coming for your job, or can it actually make you more valuable? In this video, host Pete Newsome breaks down new survey data from Axios showing why many lower-wage and early-career workers feel exposed as AI moves from helper to doer. He explains what today’s AI tools can already handle, from organizing projects to updating spreadsheets, and how that shift is quietly changing everyday work.
Pete also zooms out to the bigger picture. U.S. News & World Report’s best jobs for 2026 point to where opportunity still exists, especially in healthcare, technology, finance, and safety-critical roles. Jobs that require judgment, accountability, and human decision-making aren’t immune to automation, but they’re better positioned to use AI as a force multiplier rather than a replacement.
The takeaway is practical: waiting isn’t a strategy. Start using AI in your workflow now, automate repetitive tasks, track the results, and build skills that make you harder to replace and easier to promote. The workers who win won’t be the ones who avoid AI; they’ll be the ones who know how to direct it.
So here’s the question: Do you feel AI is helping your work today, or do you worry it’s slowly replacing parts of your job, and why?
Articles:
1. Axios Survey: https://www.axios.com/2026/01/16/lower-wage-workers-ai-threatens-jobs
2. U.S. News & World Report: https://careers.usnews.com/best-jobs/rankings/the-100-best-jobs
Don’t miss out! Subscribe for weekly updates on the latest job news.
🧠 WANT TO LEARN MORE? Be sure to subscribe and check out 4 Corner Resources at https://www.4cornerresources.com/
👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
Blog Articles: https://www.4cornerresources.com/blog/
Welcome to cornering the job market for Friday, January 16th. Today's headlines include more insight into AI's impact on the job market and U.S. News World Report's top jobs for 2026. Let's get right to it. Axios just published an article titled Most Lower Wage Workers Think AI Threatens Their Jobs. It's based on a survey of more than 3,000 workers with bachelor's degrees who earn less than 50,000 a year. Here's what stands out 52% feel negative or uncertain about AI's impact on their job prospects, and 49% believe AI could flat out replace their job. At the same time, only 30% would choose to stop AI companies from developing technology that could eliminate jobs. I have to be honest, I would have expected that number to be higher based on the negative sentiment and fear.
Pete Newsome:The poll also touched on government involvement. 56% feel the U.S. government isn't prepared to address the opportunities and challenges posed by AI. And two out of three want the government to do training to prepare the workforce for AI. Don't rely on the government. They're not coming to save you with this, nor would they do a good job if they tried. But the reality is the people at the top don't think job displacement is a problem. They're continually telling us that there's going to be a net job gain and there's nothing to worry about with that. So they're not coming to help, that's for sure. Also, 86% of respondents said they'd participate in free training, and 76% said they'd feel more confident and prepared for AI if provided such training. There is free training everywhere. You don't need to wait for that either. There's no reason to. If you don't know where to find resources, let me know.
Pete Newsome:But there's so much out there. Heck, start with ChatGPT and go from there. Get on YouTube. There are an abundance of resources out there, and you should want AI training. That is imperative right now. But free? That's not a problem. It's out there. Now let's move up the income ladder. Axios published an article that looks at AI's impact on white-collar jobs. They outline several developments that signal what's coming next. First, they point to a recent report from Goldman Sachs that says AI can already automate 25% of U.S. work hours. And a recent statement from Elon Musk when he was on the Moonshots podcast, where he said AI is good enough right now to replace half of all white-collar jobs. Now you may hear those numbers and think they're grossly exaggerated. And perhaps they are. But if they're even close to reality, the impact is going to be devastating. They also mentioned a new tool Anthropic announced this week called Cowork. Its purpose is to literally do your work so you don't have to.
Pete Newsome:You give cowork access to the files on your computer, it reads them, organizes them, updates spreadsheets, creates new documents, all of it. Essentially, you explain what you want done, it plans the steps, and then executes them while you spend time on something else, or I don't know, perhaps nothing at all. I find this simultaneously exciting and terrifying. But my takeaway from all of this, and I will continue to sound this alarm, is despite not yet seeing mass layoffs, there are signs everywhere that point to the potential for exactly that to happen. And my concern is that AI adoption is taking place much faster than past technology shifts. And most people aren't paying attention to what can or perhaps will happen as a result. So don't be caught off guard. Take the time to learn how to incorporate AI into your job, whatever it is. In today's last headline, U.S. News World Report just released their 100 best jobs list for 2026.
Pete Newsome:Unsurprisingly, a lot of healthcare jobs on there. Four in the top 10. Nurse practitioner, physician assistant, medical and health services manager, and speech language pathologist. There were also four technology jobs in the top 10. IT manager, information security analyst, software developer, and data scientist. And then rounding out the top 10 are financial manager and pilot. Pilot. Alright, so we're not ready for robots to fly the planes yet. But I just finished watching the series Pluribus on Apple TV, and let's just say my wheels have been spinning as a result of that. So let's not get too comfortable that any profession is here to stay long term. Um, great show, worth checking out if you haven't already. So those are your headlines for today.
Pete Newsome:Before we close, here is a fun fact the first computer mouse was made of wood. That's bringing us back in time a little bit. I'm not sure how that worked exactly. There had to be some electronics involved in that, but apparently it was made of wood. I'm gonna believe it until proven otherwise. Thank you for listening today. Have a great weekend. Please like, subscribe, share with anyone who you think might be interested, and I will keep sharing your headlines. Talk soon.