MSNBC and Yahoo! Finance turned to the Ford School's Betsey Stevenson for insight on trends in the U.S. labor market and the cost of living for Americans today. Stevenson discussed recent economic patterns and touched on how AI and theTrump Administration policies have contributed to higher grocery prices and a decline in job growth.
"Trump claims prices are coming down despite data and voter frustration over affordability" MSNBC, November 6, 2025 - Speaking with MSNBC, Stevenson highlighted how the failing economy is impacting Republicans' credibility on economic issues. She asserted, "Here's the problem that republicans have; they have always had a huge lead in people trusting them to run the economy, and what they have just done is run that lead way down." Recent polling data and economic outcomes have eroded voters' trust in the Republican Party. Part of their problem is that "People who are even less satisfied today are the independents, those are your swing voters. So, when President Trump is out there saying, ‘I've brought energy prices down,' and people are opening up their envelopes and seeing electricity prices are up 5%, natural gas is up 12%, what are they going to think? He's lying."
While the energy prices speak for themselves, the tariff policies implemented by the Trump administration are only worsening the economic situation. "He cares so much about these tariffs, and these tariffs are what are causing a lot of inflation. And then you combine that with his favoritism of the tech elites, who are putting a lot of demands on electricity. We all know that AI is part of what's driving up the price of electricity, and yet he's giving them handouts," said Stevenson. She notes that AI is not only driving up electricity costs, but it's also threatening the U.S. job market. Stevenson urges that AI will have striking impacts on the average American family. "We are seeing increasing investment in AI, labor-replacing technology, they're putting huge demands on energy, and nobody is talking about how we're going to make sure that this benefits regular families, rather than hurting regular families. The immediate effect right now is pain for those regular families. People seeing their kids graduating from college and not being able to find a job, people seeing their electricity bills go up," she declared.
"If you get laid off, here's why it may be tougher to find a new job" Yahoo! Finance, November 7, 2025 - Under the government shutdown, economists have been forced to turn to other resources than the BLS for job reporting data. While some data is missing, Stevenson argues that there is evidence to suggest that hiring has "dramatically slowed." She stated, "We have ongoing job growth, but it is much, much slower than what we had before. And then we're putting this together with data that says that we're seeing a pickup in some amount of layoffs... Meaning there's a slowdown in businesses forming, businesses hiring people, and all of that leads to a slowdown in the labor market." Stevenson also asserted that the combination of rising inflation and a slowing labor market "is a recipe for a really uncomfortable economy."
