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‘On precipice of incredibly contracting workforce,’ says jobs expert
The government shutdown curtailed the release of data from the Labor Department, but the current outlook for jobs is far from rosy.
Last week, payrolls processing firm ADP reported a loss of 32,000 jobs in the private sector. Data released by investment firm Carlyle showed job growth of just 17,000 for the month, falling below the 22,000 job gain in August, as per Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Recent college grads are struggling to find positions in a job market that is undeniably cooling — there were around 7.18 million job openings in August, according to BLS data, only the second reading under 7.2 million since the end of 2020.
But extend your job market lens a little further, and there is a bigger reckoning coming to the workplace, and a better one for the next generation of workers, according to future-of-work expert Cali Yost.
“We are on the precipice of an incredibly contracting workforce,” Yost, the CEO and founder of Flex + Strategy Group, said at the 2025 CNBC Workforce Executive Council Summit in New York on Tuesday.
Yost said that with more Gen Xers retiring than Gen Alphas and Gen Zers to replace them, it is estimated that roughly six million people will leave the workforce over the next five to seven years who will not be replaced by younger generations.
On top of that, Yost said she believes AI will be a net creator of jobs, leading to a scenario in which companies will have an increasingly larger need for workers in a period of a decreasing employee pool to hire from.
“That’s the talent reality that you’re facing in the next five to seven years,” Yost told the room of human resources executives.
Yost said that companies and hirers need to better tackle this coming problem by reconfiguring benefits, salaries and other offerings that are important to workers.
“Right now, we’re not really creating the environments that would make us the employers of choice,” she said. “We need to be the employer of choice that will attract and retain those Gen X and boomers that have the domain expertise, as well as the younger people who are coming in with this expectation of technology but also flexibility,” she added.
Yost said that comes down to a few key factors, or what she called an “employee value proposition that matters to people” that includes pay, flexibility and development.
“I think you will regret it if you keep trying to go back to something through policies and mandates that really aren’t working,” she said.
Yost told the human resources executives that companies need to ensure they’re putting together a roadmap for this next frontier of work, a future where the “workforce is increasingly diverse, and it’s increasingly going to be scarce.”
To join the CNBC Workforce Executive Council, apply at cnbccouncils.com/wec.
