Episode Overview
The September jobs report came in far below expectations this week: the BLS reported only 29,000 jobs added, well short of the roughly 90,000 both ADP and the consensus forecast had pointed to. Previous months were also revised down a combined 60,000 jobs, and July’s number has now flipped from a loss to a gain and back to a loss again in three separate revisions. Pete and Peter say the back-and-forth has gotten so extreme that the headline numbers are losing credibility by the month.
The harder story inside the report: unemployment rose from 4.1% to 4.2%, its first increase in a while, and unemployment among 20-to-24-year-olds is now at 8%. The number of people seeking their first job climbed to 818,000, up 116,000 from the prior reading. Pete and Peter tie this directly to an Arkansas welfare ad that ran this week, one that used a young man playing video games as the face of a “typical” welfare recipient to promote new work requirements. Given what the data actually shows about how hard it is for young job seekers to find work right now, Pete and Peter call the ad out as badly timed and out of touch.
They also cover DoorDash’s announcement of a new 3,000-person customer support and admin center in India, one of more than 2,100 similar centers now operating there. Costco, McDonald’s, Charles Schwab, and Southwest Airlines have all opened comparable offshore centers recently. Pete and Peter question why this kind of offshoring, unlike manufacturing jobs moving overseas, draws so little public attention or political pressure to bring the work back to the US.
Elsewhere: Glassdoor’s worker confidence index hit its third record low of 2026, with workers’ six-month outlook dropping to 42.9%. Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees pulled back hiring the hardest this month, even as many of them say they still can’t find qualified candidates, a disconnect Pete and Peter attribute partly to job seekers gravitating toward recognizable brand names over smaller companies that don’t typically use outside recruiting help.
They close with California’s newly signed “No Robo Bosses” law, which bars employers from firing or disciplining workers based solely on an automated decision starting in July 2027, and LinkedIn’s CEO predicting that AI will eventually touch every job in some form. That echoes a bigger claim Elon Musk has made repeatedly: that robots and AI will eventually do all the work, and universal basic income will make everyone rich as a result. Pete and Peter aren’t buying it, and they question how “everyone gets rich” squares with basic supply and demand.
Key Takeaways
- Only 29,000 jobs added in September, far below the roughly 90,000 forecast
- Previous months revised down a combined 60,000 jobs, with July flipping between a loss and a gain three times
- Unemployment rises to 4.2%, and unemployment among 20-to-24-year-olds hits 8%
- An Arkansas welfare ad draws criticism for its timing given the youth unemployment data
- DoorDash opens a 3,000-person customer support center in India
- Glassdoor’s worker confidence index hits a third record low for 2026
- Small businesses pull back hiring even as many say they can’t find qualified workers
- California’s new “No Robo Bosses” law limits AI-only firing decisions
35 minutes
