Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Justin Wolfers Explains How The Dow Can Hit 50,000 While The Job Market Weakens(!) - CNN Newsroom [View all]
What happens when the Dow hits 50,000… while the job market quietly weakens?
The stock market is being pulled upward by one dominant story: the global surge in AI. Investors are pricing in a potential revolution—one that boosts valuations for the biggest AI-linked firms and helps lift indexes like the Dow. But that doesn’t mean most workers are sharing in the boom.
Most people don’t work in AI, and building out AI data centers doesn’t require masses of new employees. So while stocks can look unstoppable, the “people part” of the economy can be cooling at the same time.
The clearest signal for everyday life is the unemployment rate—and it’s moved from around 3.5% a couple years ago to about 4.5% now. That rise happened slowly enough to avoid headlines, but over a year it adds up: finding a job is harder, and hiring has slowed sharply.
Another underrated indicator is the quit rate. When workers feel confident, they quit to find something better. When they don’t, quits fall—suggesting people aren’t seeing better opportunities out there right now.
And the AI disruption is already showing up in markets: new AI tools can make individuals more productive and reduce what they need to buy from software firms. That’s great for productivity—but it can be rough on the companies whose business models just got undercut.
Bottom line: a record stock market doesn’t guarantee a strong job market—and the gap matters for your pay, your bargaining power, and your next career move.
Topics covered:
Why the Dow can surge even when hiring slows
How the AI boom is pushing up market valuations
Why data centers don’t translate into broad job growth
What a rising unemployment rate means for families
How slow-moving labor market shifts escape headlines
Why job growth has been weak in recent months
What the falling quit rate reveals about worker confidence
How AI tools can disrupt software and digital services
Why productivity gains can hurt some firms’ earnings
How to interpret “stocks up” vs “economy strong”
Contents:
0:00 Dow 50,000 vs weak job growth
0:26 The AI boom lifting markets
1:06 Why most workers aren’t in AI
1:33 Unemployment rising—quietly
2:16 Hiring slowdown and “Liberation Day” timing
2:42 The quit rate as a confidence gauge
3:11 AI disruption hits software stocks
3:27 Productivity gains for workers
🎯 Key takeaway: A booming stock market can coexist with a cooling labor market—watch unemployment and quits to understand what’s happening to real people.
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read