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way.
>> Reporting from Madison.

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I'm Zac Schultz for "Here&
Now".

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>> Wisconsin's unemployment
rate sits at 3.5%. That's

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lower than the national
average. But for people

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newly entering the job
market like recent

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graduates, what are their
prospects? Is the labor

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market cooling and what
role does AI have? That's a

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lot of questions. We take
them to Scott Hodek,

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economist with the state
Department of Workforce

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Development. And thanks
>> Yeah, absolutely. Thank

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you.
>> So what does the

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Wisconsin labor market look
like right now for new

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entrants into it?
>> And we're seeing some

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deceleration, some slowing
at the national level. And,

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you know, a couple that
with with rising prices,

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which are a real drag on
the economy and some of the

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other indicators that show
some changing spending

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patterns and, you know,
flattening trend in real

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disposable income, savings
rates, things like that.

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And we're definitely seeing
then, you know, a slowing

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national economy. And of
course, then in Wisconsin,

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we feel that as well. When
I, when I look though at at

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our overall labor market,
there are there are some

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bright spots too. I mean,
like you noted, we, we do

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have a historically low
unemployment rate. So if

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you look at, say, national
job openings, data, you do

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tend to see that there the
higher rates and the

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separation rates tend to be
really tight together. But

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there's still, you know, a
relatively speaking, a

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decent amount of openings.
We've had plenty of times

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in the past where we've had,
you know, technological

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change. And that definitely
does cause some disruption.

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We've actually done work
for the Governor's task

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force on AI and looked into
where there's exposure

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amongst these occupations
to AI, and there's a lot

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there. There will be a lot
of exposure, but it doesn't

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necessarily indicate
substitution. And a lot of

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cases it will be folks
working with AI. And that's

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that's something we're
already seeing. That said,

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new grads have always
adapted, and there are a

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lot of job openings out
there. And given

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demographics just with the
retirement of the baby

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boomers, there are a lot of
positions coming open that

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are simply because of
retirements. So there there

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actually are a lot of
openings and opportunities

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out there. It's just a
matter of kind of

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connecting to them.
>> What are the so-called

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hot jobs right now?
>> Yeah, a couple of the

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industries. And again, so
I'm going to base this off

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growth, but we're seeing a
lot of growth in health

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care. And that makes sense
with an aging population,

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but also with retirements.
And we're seeing a lot of

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growth in construction as
well. And you might you

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might look at construction
and say, okay, well, that's,

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that's mostly manual labor.
And it's there is a lot of

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that, but it's not always
the case as well. There's

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skilled trades like
electricians and plumbers,

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there's machine operators,
and then you've got the

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larger companies that do
require accountants and it.

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And so you do have a lot of
different occupations mixed

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in in these fields that
have been doing well. But

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also, you know, if you look
at manufacturing over the

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over the last few years,
it's been a downward trend

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in employment. And honestly,
over throughout the the

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past decades, we've seen
staggered drops in

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employment, in
manufacturing, which we've

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seen nationally as well.
This is a kind of a

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developed world sort of
trend. But what we do see

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is that there are still
there's still difficulty

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hiring into, into
manufacturing as well. And

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it's, it we're looking at a
ton of employment in

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Wisconsin and a ton of a
ton of output and

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contribution to our gross
domestic product here. So

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there are a lot of
positions there that are

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open as well, but we don't
necessarily think about

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that sometimes as job
seekers. Like, is this

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industry growing? If not,
should I not apply there?

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And the truth is, there's
so many retirements across

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a lot of these different
industries that it's it's

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more a matter of thinking
of finding kind of the

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occupations that fit. Right.
>> So what are your long

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term projections for trends?
The economy? I mean, are

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people like you looking at
potential recession?

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>> Well, we don't really
speculate on on what we're

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going to see in the future.
What I can tell you is that

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the trend right now has
been has been slowing. That

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said, if if you were to
just sort of grab news

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articles around the country,
you would see that that

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while that some economists
are projecting that it'll

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climb back up, some are
projecting that it will

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have we'll have lower GDP
this this year. And there

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there are not actually a
ton of them calling for a

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recession immediately.
Again, you know, that

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doesn't necessarily mean
that we won't have one or

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or that one isn't coming.
But what I see right now,

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what I can see right now is
what I can tell you. And

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that's that we're seeing a
slowing economy. But even

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despite all the, the, the
pushback from things like,

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you know, tariffs, the war
in Iran, rising prices,

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things like that, we're
still seeing growth and

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we're still seeing low
unemployment rates. And and

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here in Wisconsin, we can
look at our unemployment

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insurance claims data. And
we're still seeing that on

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trend and below the last
couple of years as well. So

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so there, yeah, it's, it's,
it's, it's difficult to say

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with all the volatility and
uncertainty right now, what

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we'll see going forward.
>> Yeah, indeed. All right.