The U.S. Job Market Gets Crushed 9-5-25 - Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast

Summary3 min read

Episode Overview

Podcast: Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Host: Scott Becker
Episode Title: The U.S. Job Market Gets Crushed
Date: September 5, 2025

In this episode, Scott Becker offers a succinct but urgent assessment of the U.S. job market as of August 2025. He analyzes troubling employment numbers, connects them to macroeconomic factors such as deficit spending and inflation, and provides listeners with his frank, immediate reactions to these economic signals.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Alarming Job Creation Data

The U.S. added only 22,000 new jobs in August 2025
- Scott Becker: "The U.S. job market in August only created 22,000 new jobs. That's a horrendously low number." [00:39]

2. Rising Unemployment and Economic Concerns

Unemployment rate has risen to 4.3%
- Scott Becker: "We also saw unemployment going up by 4.3%." [00:44]
This stagnation is especially disturbing given continued deficit spending
- Scott Becker: "If you got this tremendous deficit spending going on, just like we did under the Biden administration, but we're not creating any jobs, then for all practical purposes we're wasting and throwing away a lot of that deficit spending." [00:52]

3. Deficit Spending & Effectiveness

Becker criticizes the inefficiency of ongoing high deficit spending in the absence of job growth
- Scott Becker: "It's really a bad, bad situation." [01:08]
Connects current trends to policies under the Biden administration, discussing how government spending does not automatically translate to positive economic outcomes if job growth is absent

4. Contributing Factors

Suggests possible causes for weak job growth
- Points to artificial intelligence and 'other things' as culprits (not deeply explored in this brief episode)
- Scott Becker: "In some of this you could blame on AI. You can blame it on other things." [01:15]

5. Federal Reserve and Possible Rate Cuts

Predicts the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates in response
- Scott Becker: "I guess the only positive here is that this will lead the Fed to reduce the fed funds rate to try and goose the economy a little bit." [01:20]

6. Risks of Inflation

Warns this combination of deficit spending and potential rate cuts could keep inflation high, even in a stagnating job market
- Scott Becker: "...the combination of that with deficit spending means that you'll probably still have inflation even though you've got a very slow job market." [01:28]

7. Overall Sentiment

The tone is candidly pessimistic
- Scott Becker: "Really a very depressing situation. Sorry for being so negative today." [01:34]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

"The U.S. job market in August only created 22,000 new jobs. That's a horrendously low number." — Scott Becker [00:39]
"If you got this tremendous deficit spending going on, just like we did under the Biden administration, but we're not creating any jobs, then for all practical purposes we're wasting and throwing away a lot of that deficit spending." — Scott Becker [00:52]
"In some of this you could blame on AI. You can blame it on other things." — Scott Becker [01:15]
"...the combination of that with deficit spending means that you'll probably still have inflation even though you've got a very slow job market." — Scott Becker [01:28]
"Really a very depressing situation. Sorry for being so negative today." — Scott Becker [01:34]

Timestamps of Important Segments

00:31 – 00:44: Introduction by Scott Becker and overview of current jobs data
00:44 – 01:08: Discussion of rising unemployment and criticism of deficit spending
01:15 – 01:20: Speculation on causes, including AI
01:20 – 01:28: Prediction about Fed response and risk of lingering inflation
01:34: Closing remarks and apologetic note on the negativity of the outlook

Conclusion

Scott Becker delivers a concise yet sobering snapshot of the U.S. job market, making clear his concerns about weak job creation, the potential futility of deficit spending in the current environment, and the risk of ongoing inflation. The episode is marked by Becker’s signature directness, providing listeners with a quick but thorough understanding of the economic challenges facing the U.S. as of September 2025.

Loading summary

Transcript2 lines

[00:02]
A
Onward headhunting is the source for elite M and A operations and finance executive talent exclusively for private equity funds and their high growth portfolio companies. When top tier leadership seems impossible to find, Onward delivers with speed and accuracy. This is retained search built to shape the future of your most important assets. Learn more on LinkedIn or visit onwardheadhunting.com to start the conversation. And let's move your most critical executive searches onward.
[00:31]
B
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business Minute and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. We follow startups investing, private equity and a whole lot more here at Becker Business Media. And thank you for listening. Today's discussion is the US Jobs market is getting crushed. So here's the situation that we're watching this morning. The U.S. job market in August only created 22,000 new jobs. That's a horrendously low number. We also saw unemployment going up by 4.3%. If you want to criticize economics, you could look at this and say we've got this horrendous deficit spending going on. If you got this tremendous deficit spending going on, just like we did under the Biden administration, but we're not creating any jobs, then for all practical purposes we're wasting and throwing away a lot of that deficit spending. It's really a bad, bad situation. So you're at a spot now where the job market, the unemployment rate has creeped up to 4.3%. We've got big deficits going. The economy is only creating a very small number of jobs. In some of this you could blame on AI. You can blame it on other things. I guess the only positive here is that this will lead the Fed to reduce the fed funds rate to try and goose the economy a little bit. But the combination of that with deficit spending means that you'll probably still have inflation even though you've got a very slow job market. Really a very depressing situation. Sorry for being so negative today. Thank you for listening to the Becker Business Podcast, the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Thank you very much for joining us.