Jobs Report Reveals Multi-Speed Economy: Infrastructure Investments Boost Finance Hiring, AI Creates New Opportunities

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Lisa Flicker, who's the Senior Managing Partner, Head of Real Estate, Jackson Lucas. And we're talking about this jobs report today. Lisa, what did you make of it?

**Lisa Flicker** (0:09)
Well, Sam, Marlee, thanks for having me back. And it was obviously a little bit disappointing at the onset, but I think that the headline sounds disappointing, but actually the report itself is a lot more nuanced. What I think really matters here is that the economy is not just one labor market, it's multiple labor markets moving at very different speeds.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:32)
And Lisa, I know that you have your own recruiting data that is obviously separate from the government data. So I'm curious to know that with this significant loss of momentum we're seeing in the government data, what are you seeing in your recruiting data that isn't being reflected here?

**Lisa Flicker** (0:50)
So what I'm seeing is that this data that we're looking at today is a little bit historic.
It's July's job report, so it's back to July. And I think right now, what I'm seeing is there has been major infrastructure commitments, hundreds of billions of dollars committed to infrastructure. That capital is committed. They need to scale those companies. They need to finance those companies. They need to operate those companies. And so I think that the more relevant thing here is we are still very busy at Jackson Lucas. There's still a lot of hiring going on, especially in the finance sectors.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:27)
Lisa, when you talk about the nuances in this data, and at first glance, it may look negative. But when you sort of peel back the layers of the onion, one way to perhaps look at it, and I've been hearing this today, is the fact that we've seen very robust corporate earnings. Obviously, companies are managing to keep margins looking healthy, even as they've been laying off people. I mean, Airbnb has obviously been seeing those efficiencies that have been AI-powered through some of their investments as well. I'm just wondering if with a softer labor market, if we continue to see this, if productivity is going to save the day here?

**Lisa Flicker** (2:09)
I think so. As I said earlier, I think the billions of dollars that have been committed to the AI infrastructure is going to drive hiring. Also, I know there's some sentiment of people thinking like, well, AI is going to reduce jobs. Honestly, what I'm hearing from the trenches here is they're going to need more people to implement these strategies that they're putting together.
More people, but top talent.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:41)
Lisa, as you look at these, I think you called them multiple labor markets, and they're obviously all moving at different speeds. Where are you seeing hiring being most aggressive? Assuming things tied to the AI build out based on what you said here, but also the flip of that, what sectors are slowing the most?

**Lisa Flicker** (2:58)
Well, I think on the growth side, we're seeing a lot in investment banking, especially the people who are doing the deals, so VP level or so.
I'm also seeing the secondaries market is really busy. There are a lot of people raising capital, and I'm starting to see demand for people to put that capital out. So it's a, I'm seeing a very, usually August is a slow month, and honestly, we have been so incredibly busy.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:32)
What are you seeing as far as the demographics is concerned? Because Nicole, my colleague and I were having a great chat just before about the boomers versus the college graduates, I mean, how they're feeling about the jobs market right now, not to mention some of the immigration policies. KPMG has been talking about that a lot today with respect to the supply, how that unemployment figure actually coming in at 4.1%, while it looks like good news, is actually masking some of the weakness because you've taken out a lot of the supply and the overflow there. How are you thinking about the demographic part of the jobs market?

**Lisa Flicker** (4:10)
I think that the financial services sector, which is really where we operate, is growing, is bigger. What I'm seeing on the ground is leaders of these companies are trying to figure out, how do they take their new AI tools that they're putting in and grow them. They're looking at who are the top people.
It's interesting when you talk about age demographics, I think some of the more senior executives that I've seen retiring are actually coming back because they need people who have years of experience to shape how that goes forward.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:47)
So Lisa, you mentioned a lot of people looking for VP level or higher senior executives even coming out of retirement. These are all highly experienced, highly educated in their own field, arguably likely than older, at least the retired ones for sure. But to get that level of experience, we're not talking about college graduates here. What is the talent pursuit look like from the lower end? We have it at the higher end, but what about for the more average or the more nascent employee?