How We’re Laboring…and How We’re Spending

Perustin pyöräilyvää teitä valmistavan ornotin vuonna 2013. Mielestäni parasta Shopify saan se, että voimme harjoittaa liiketoimintaa ilman teknistä osaamista, voimme hallinnoida yrityksen taustajaristeelle mien ja front-endia sekä myydä verkossa, vaivatta, jos Shopify olisi pyöräilyvaruste, sollisimielestäni itse polkupyörä. Sillä asiat hoidetaan ja meidän liiketoiminta me hoituu Shopify'sssä. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste.com sivustolla. Hey, it's Brad, et it's Labor Day. A day where we're often thinking about American money and the workforce and work itself. Hopefully, we're also thinking about not working. I know lots of people do have the day off today. So, whether you're on your normal commute or whether you're wrapping up a family road trip or just hanging at home today, we thought this might be a good chance to check in on what work looks like in 2026 and what the fruits of that laborer can buy you. So, we're going to do something a little different today. We've got ABC's Mike Dubuski here. You've heard him before covering tech and cars. Well, recently, he hosted a whole Labor Day special for ABC Radio devoted to Americans' personal economies. Today, we're going to hear a couple of our favorite pieces of reporting from that special. Mike is with us. Now, first off, Mike, personal economies. What do you mean by that? Yeah, it's a good question, Brad. I think kind of the focus of this whole show is that Americans' personal economy is kind of confusing right now. We know that times are tight. We know that plenty of people are trying to scrimp and save wherever they can, literally stretch their dollars. But we're also seeing people continue to spend in major industries, everything from saving up for college to spending on AI subscriptions to maybe buying a car or a new piece of tech. These are kind of interesting questions to wrestle with, right? We hear all this sort of crazy conflicting news about the economy, but people are still spending. It lends itself to this sort of, you know, interesting thing to report on. And what we wanted to do with this show is take a look at what Americans are doing to make a little bit of extra money and what they are doing with those extra funds once it's finally time to clock out of work. That was kind of the animating theme of this whole show. I love that, but I am thinking about how work itself is changing right now. Meaning like the thing you probably spent years studying and then learning and then perfecting and then, you know, some people you got to work your way up the ladder or whatever that profession is. All of that seems like it can get upended more and more quickly with the advent of, say, like artificial intelligence programs. Is that too alarmist of me or how did you think about that? Yeah, Brad, I think that if there's one thing that hangs over pretty much every discussion of the economy in 2026, it's artificial intelligence. We know that a lot of these tools are really well used, open AI, which makes Changi PT recently announced that that platform crossed a billion monthly users, a huge milestone. But then you rewind a few months and commencement speakers at graduations were being booed for even mentioning artificial intelligence. Again, that contributes to this sort of dissonance that we've been observing over the last few years between how people are using these tools and how they feel about these tools. It seems like there's a really wide gulf there. Well, ABC's Rob Hawley took a look at how AI is changing work, not just for new entrants into the working world, but people who have been working for years and are maybe looking for a new job who are seeing their own current careers being upended by artificial intelligence. It's a really fascinating piece and really it kind of underlines how a lot of companies and employees are some jumping in with both feet to the AI space. Some are testing the waters and some don't think this has any water at all. It's a really, really fascinating discussion. That's great. And so what we're going to do is listen to that piece right now. So this is ABC's Rob Hawley. Every year Microsoft puts out a report it calls the work trend index, a study of the trends around the way we all work. So when I talked with Katie George, corporate vice president of workforce transformation at Microsoft about this year's index, I just had to ask this question. I went back and I looked at the 2021 work trend index. Yes, how many times artificial intelligence mentioned in that one? Oh, boy, I do. God, back it looked. I'm guessing zero. The word artificial is not even there. Back then, it was all about things like hybrid work, remote work. This year, it's all AI. I don't think that the impact of AI on the workplace in 2026 can be overstated. We've seen dramatic changes in work. Microsoft, of course, has its own AI offering called co-pilot. And George says they're seeing a change in how people are using it. One of the things that was most striking is that this year, almost 50% of the tasks that co-pilot chat is helping our users with are what we call cognitive. So we've moved and graduated from email and document retrieval to problem solving analysis, helping people think creatively. She says some of the heaviest users of AI say they're now doing work. They just couldn't have done before. Andy Challenger, without placement from Challenger, Graham Christmas, seeing that happening firsthand with their own projects. There are so many tech projects that we wanted to do that we just couldn't tackle because they were too big and expensive and time-consuming. And we've been able to bring on a couple of coders and get a ton of those done in the last year in a totally surprising way that it's actually created a certain amount of jobs in that sense. But the changes in how we're working aren't universal or even spread out evenly. Kyle MK is a senior talent strategy advisor at Indeed and has been taking a look at how AI is rolling out across companies. Right now it feels like the Wild West when it comes to how employers are rolling out AI. I like to use the analogy of a lightning strike. I don't know if you've ever seen a lightning strike in slow motion, but it is a lot of electricity coming from the sky. And whichever is the first touchpoint to the ground, that's where everything, that's where we see the lightning bolt. Right now in terms of AI being used within work, we haven't seen the lightning bolt yet. We're still kind of exploring all of these different avenues all at once. And there's a lot of expectation within each company to use AI probably a little more expectation than support. And they're all looking for that lightning bolt for that ground touch. And then there are the people who have tried AI tools and found they just didn't work for their work. So far I'm not that impressed with the AI that's publicly available. I've been trying to use it process data. And I'm still just kind of like, I'm not super impressed with what this is capable of. Melanie Hansen is the senior editor of the education data initiative. I've had clients who are like used AI to generate this article. And I'm like, it's wrong. It can't research. It doesn't know what's true and what's not. So it's useless. Which goes right to the heart of a lot of issues around AI. Trust. I'm Noah Johnson Acusa, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Bentley University. And we went through some recent Gallup polling on what Americans think of AI. We started polling people to see how they feel about AI in a few different directions just a few years ago around the time that chat GPT came out. And it was interesting for the first couple of years. It looked like people were getting more comfortable with AI, more optimistic that it was going to create new jobs, that it was going to make things better. Just this last iteration of the poll this last season, we saw things kind of swap in the moving the other directions. So now people are trusting it less, they're less optimistic. In the poll that was released this summer, 39% of Americans think AI will do more harm than good. That's up from 31% last year. About 80% of Americans think AI will mean fewer jobs. People are worried that this will do good, but it may do more harm than good. It will create some jobs, but it may displace and eliminate more jobs than that. The poll also showing negativity about AI is actually highest among the youngest adults. 47% of 19 to 29 year olds now say AI does more harm than good. While the poll didn't ask why, Dr. Johnson Acusa, who studies AI, has some ideas. I think part of that lack of trust among all groups, but especially young people, is just seeing that even the tech leaders and the business leaders don't necessarily have a great sense of where to go and how to use this. They have the enthusiasm, but there's a lot of trial and error and learning by the school of hard knocks happening at all levels. All that trial and error with AI also reflected in the work trend index back to Microsoft's Katie George. The truth is that the world is still all over the map in terms of how sophisticated they are from the work trend index only about a quarter of the people would say that their leaders are consistent and clear about what the impact of AI is going to be. Leaders are still figuring this out. Some of the ways Microsoft itself is using AI to change work is by building up new ways to work centered around artificial intelligence tools. So for example, there's now a sales agent that can close business on its own, right, with guidance from humans, of course, and is reaching out to white space accounts that we couldn't otherwise have gotten to. And that's an example of an AI first workflow. Indeed, Kyle Mk says another possible future for work with AI is the idea of people being in charge of AI agents doing nuts and bolts work while humans work on keeping the humanity in their work. ja nyt on jo yksi kertaa. gifted individuals into management roles. And I think that we'll sooner than later, we're going to start hiring more Ted Lasos. Be curious, not judgmental. I like it. And people who are may not know the exact skill set, but they are really great when it comes to the interpersonal relationships, motivation, inspiration. And that's the thing that I'm really excited for Rob Hawley, ABC News. All right, now is ABC's Rob Hawley. And if you think the process of work sounds more complicated, try using that money to actually buy something you want, like your next car, because that's getting more and more expensive. In fact, it's probably getting more and more expensive as I'm talking. I should shut up now. We will be back right after the break. This show is sponsored by Quince. You know, those pieces in your claws that you find yourself wearing on a repeat, like the sweater that goes with everything, or that t-shirt that you always seem to put on right when it comes out of the dryer. These clothes are the sorts of things Quince does best. Quince delivers high-quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials, like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and marino wool. They also don't just make clothes. In fact, I am moving to a new apartment. 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All right, and we're back with ABC's Mike to Busky on a Slavery Day. Mike, I know one of your passions is cars. I imagine a huge chunk of people listening to this right now are in their cars, are reliant on their cars. I just saw recently that the price of a used car in this country, like the average used car in America cost 27,000 dollars. How did that happen? And what does that mean for us? Yeah, Brad, it was not that long ago that the average new car in the US was around that price. And if we're talking about new cars, things that are under 27,000 dollars are pretty slim. In fact, according to Edmunds.com, it's less than 4% of new cars that are under that new car price. And that's being driven by a lot of different things, Brad. Part of this is inflation. Of course, the dollar just doesn't stretch as much as it did 20 years ago. The pandemic obviously tied up supply chains, and we're still seeing the effect of that. But there's a lot of other reasons for this as well. And to dive into that, I spoke with Morgan Corn. She covers cars here at ABC. She's also a real gear head. I can test. So I wanted to ask Morgan about why cars are so expensive, and what people who are in the market for a car of any kind, new or used, can do to maybe save a couple bucks here and there. Yeah, that's right. Some practical advice. So let's hear that right now. So this is Mike Debutsky talking with Morgan Corn. Let's listen in on that conversation. Buying a car has always been a pricey proposition. For most people, cars are the second most expensive assets they own behind their house. But recently, the car market has gotten really expensive. And to talk about how what's in your driveway is impacting what's in your wallet, there's no one better to talk to than Morgan Corn, who covers the car market here for us at ABC. Morgan, you and I are both car people. I wanted to talk to you about this car magazine article that I read probably 15, 20 years ago at this point. It was in motor trend comparing a Nissan Versa to a Hyundai accent. In 2008, 2009, those were the two cheapest new cars on sale at the time. And the quoted price in that article for the Hyundai was $9,995. New cars were still retailing for four figures less than 20 years ago. And this is very much not the case anymore. I assume. Can you just walk me through some of the numbers here? How expensive are new cars generally in 2026? Yeah. Can you imagine that might spend you $10,000 on a brand new car? Yeah. Unbelievable. No. If you want a new car, you're looking at spending about $50,000 on average. Now, if you want to pick up truck, which is the most popular segment right here in the US, you're looking at spending at almost $68,000. And this is new data according to Kelly Bluebook based on July numbers. Sure. So a much different world. Obviously, some of that's driven by inflation. But what can you tell us about how the car market has changed and what might be driving some of this increased cost? Americans love to drive big trucks and big SUVs. But unfortunately, they do cost a lot of money. So if you have to be more careful with your spending in terms of buying a new vehicle, you're going to have to look at maybe like a compact truck, a compact SUV, a sedan, which, you know, there are some models still available on the market, but not many. They're like less than 50 on the market, that retail for less than $35,000. Well, I'm wondering how much of this has kind of become a self-fulfilling prophecy because we do know that Americans love to buy pickup trucks. There is a, you know, sort of market preference towards larger vehicles. And that would cause a manufacturer to build more of them, right? So they're on dealer lots, maybe at the expense of having sedans or smaller cheaper vehicles in the lineup. Is that playing into this as well, where it's just like, okay, the market demanded these expensive vehicles. And now we're surrounded by expensive vehicles. I think so. And automakers, you know, make big margins on these vehicles. So they're going to keep producing them, you know, and a lot of Americans are just used to a lot of great tech. They want all of the driver assistance programs, you know, they want nice leather, they want other cup holders, they want the heated and ventilated seats, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, I could go on and on. All of that's going to cost money. And I think for a lot of people, they lease cars every three years. And so they want the best new vehicle. And those vehicles come with hefty price tags, unfortunately. Yeah. How are the companies here responding? Like, are we seeing maybe a more of an emphasis on cheaper vehicles that are out there? There are a couple models. You probably are well aware of the slate truck slash SUV. Yeah, tell us about that because that's something that's gotten a lot of attention recently. This new startup automaker. Yes. So the truck configuration starts about $25,000. You can also get it as like a swoopie coupe type SUV or like a boxy SUV. Those costs a little bit more. But the selling point for this is that it's a bare bones electric vehicle. And let's make that distinction, right? It's electric. And it only gets about 205 miles of range. And you can add to the cost of it. And I spoke to the CEO of slate recently. He expects people to spend anywhere from a thousand to $3,500 on accessories. And what does that mean? Like wraps, decals, different types of lighting comes with paints, right? You have to wrap it, you know, in order to get a color. It is so bare bones. You know, there's no radio. There's there's a little like device. where you can attach it to a panel which costs extra and you put your iPhone and that, you know, is your radio in the vehicle. So I've talked to a couple of people about this. Is it gonna sell? Well, maybe, I mean, I still think people who really are looking for affordable vehicles, they're gonna have to go to the used car market. They can't even spend $25,000, $30,000 on a brand new vehicle. - I'm glad you brought this up. Because the slay truck we are expecting that to go on sale within the next couple of months here, maybe start seeing them on the roads. - It's success is still very much an open question. In terms of cars that you can buy right now, what are you seeing in the affordable space? Electric or no that is getting a lot of attention from industry analysts, you know, other, you know, car journalists out there who are kind of paying attention to the kind of more affordable sector. - Okay, I think everybody knows what a Honda Civic is. - Yes, the Noble Civic. - The Noble Civic, people love it for a reason. And if you ask any long time automotive journalists, they'll say if you don't have a lot of money to spend by the Civic. The base model, which I don't think a lot of people buy, but the base model starts at $25,000. And you can spend more, right? You can get the hybrid version. You can get the Civic SI, which is really sporting fun to drive. You can even upgrade and spend a little more to get a Bose sound system. You get your blind spot monitoring, rear view cameras, you know, all the essentials that are important. And you're gonna get good fuel economy. We know gas prices are very high right now, higher than they have been. So the Civic is a great option. Plus, if you wanna resell it at some point, you're probably gonna make your money back. - Right, if people maybe don't want a Honda, want to try something else, what else is out there? - Okay, so I really like the Kia K4. Now you can get it as a sedan or a hatch. It's peppy, you can take it around, you know, back roads in the country and have a lot of fun with it. But you're gonna get heated front seats, all the safety assist features. Again, Apple CarPlay, wireless charging. I think it's a great option for young people who don't have a lot of money to spend. - Taking a step back here. If someone needs a car within the next couple months here, give in all the cost concerns, all the affordability questions that are facing the American consumer right now. What's your advice to them? - There are a lot of models on the market right now. And we're gonna probably have some incentives and deals toward the end of the year. So if you can hold out until maybe mid late December, you might be able to get a couple of thousand dollars off the MSRP. But if you don't need anything extravagant, there are lots of good models like the K4, like the Civic, like the Bolt, the Ford Maverick. It's a small truck, it's very drivable. You know, you have a bed, you can put a lot of stuff in it, it does some toeing. There are options out there for people who do not wanna spend $50 to $80,000 on a new car or a truck. - Morgan Corn, I know you're gonna pay attention to this as the year progresses, these low-cost cars that seemingly might take a little look in, but you know, they're still out there. Thanks so much for talking to me. I really appreciate it. - Thank you so much, Mike. - All right, that was Morgan Corn talking with our own Mike DeBuskey, who's back with us now, 'cause Mike, I just wanted to get some closing thoughts from you because these are great tips. And yet I can't help but wonder what this means for the broader economy going forward. How did you walk away from this reporting? - Yeah, I think this show again, bread really covered a whole swath of different things. Not just about how people are trying to save, but also how people are spending and how that is changing. We, in addition to looking at the car market, also looked at the tech sector. I'm the tech reporter here, Brad, so we couldn't resist doing a segment on technology. Turns out prices are up there as well, but for like a totally different reason. I think if I had a big thought about all of this, I'm gonna borrow a term. The vibes-based economy is all over the place right now. Some people are feeling really good. We know that people are continuing to spend. They're continuing to go out and have experiences as we hear about people continuing to go out to concerts, going on vacation, that type of thing. That's covered in this show. But also, any poll that asks people about the economy, they feel trepidacious or they feel bad about where all of this is going and how expensive things could potentially become in the future. I think what's gonna be really interesting to pay attention to over the next year, between now and next Labor Day, basically, is whether those kind of diverging feelings versus realities come together, right? Whether people start to feel better about the economy or whether the economy starts to better reflect what people are feeling right now. I don't have the answer, but I'm really interested to see where that goes because it's gonna impact a huge swath of people. Absolutely. It's really great reporting again. This is all part of ADC radio special on the money. Hosted, of course, by Mike Dubusky. I know lots of people in lots of different radio markets have been hearing your voice throughout the weekend, but thank you so much, Mike, for talking to us. Of course, Frank. All right, I'm Brad Milky, have a happy Labor Day and we'll see you tomorrow. (gentle music) - Olen Shannon Maldonado. Käsintehtija artessaanitua teita myvän jaui lajakaoban perustaja. Valitsin Shopify, koska alustoja testa tessani totesinsen ehdottomasti yhdeksi helpokäyttöisimmistä alustoista. Minulo oli tärkeää pohtia kehittymistä me tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittava työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu, ovat kätävästi dashboardissa. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste komsi vustolla. Perustin pyöräily vaatteita valmistavan ornotin vuonna 2013. Mielestä ni parasta Shopify saan se, että voime harioittaa liiketoimintaa ilman tegnista osaamista. Voime hallinoida yrityksen taustaja-restelmiä ja front-endia sekä myydä verkossa, vaivatta. Jos Shopify olisi pyöräilyvaruste, se olisi mielestäni itse polku pyörä. Sillä asiat hoidetaan ja meida liiketoimintamme hoituu Shopify's. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste komsi vustolla.