‘On the precipice of the incredibly contractual workforce,’ says employment expert

The government shutdown has reduced the release of Labor Department data, but the current outlook for jobs is far from rosy.

Last week, payroll processing company ADP reported a loss of 32,000 private sector jobs. Data released by investment firm Carlyle showed job growth of just 17,000 for the month, falling below the job gain in August, consistent with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Recent college graduates are struggling to find positions in a job market that’s undeniably cooling — there were about 7.18 million job openings in August, according to BLS Data, only the second reading of less than 7.2 million since the end of 2020.

But broaden your labor market lens a little wider, and there’s a bigger reckoning coming in 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 contracted workforce,” Yost, CEO and founder of Flex + Strategy Group, said at the CNBC Workforce Executive Council 2025 Summit in New York on Tuesday.

Yost said that with more Gen

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 a greater and greater need for workers in a period of a declining pool of employees to hire from.

“This is the talent reality that you face in the next five to seven years,” Yost told The Room of Human Resources Manivercs.

Yost said businesses and tenants need to better tackle this coming problem by reconfiguring benefits, wages 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 Gen Xers and baby boomers who have the domain expertise, as well as younger people who come with this expectation of technology but also flexibility,” she added.

Yost said it comes down to a few key factors, or what she called an “employee value proposition that people care about” that includes compensation, flexibility and development.

“I think you’ll regret it if you keep trying to get back to something through policies and mandates that really don’t work,” she said.

Yost told HR leaders that companies need to make sure they are preparing a road map for this next frontier of work, a future where “the workforce is increasingly diverse, and it will be increasingly scarce.”

To join the CNBC Workforce Executive Council, apply at cnbccouncils.com/wec.