E22-"How to See Labor Trends Ahead", Luke Greiner, DEED


E22-"How to See Labor Trends Ahead"

Luke Greiner, DEED, February 4, 2026

Today's Podcast                        

LINK

Today, we hosted Luke Greiner, who many of us have already had some experience with, others of us a lot more. Luke is so eloquent and candid about the labor market and economic forces. In this episode, Luke and I discuss many things including: 
  • How he got into this field. 
  • How skills and content interplay in high schools. 
  • What skills/certifications are diminishing; which may be decreasing in value? 
  • Exciting and scary changes in the workforce and professions. 
  • A lot of discussion about the effects of AI thus far and peering into the future. 

Deed Survey

Luke and I discussed one aspect of DEED that they emphasize with schools. There is a labor market survey for students that can be a great tool to start these discussions with students and high schools. If you want your students to take this survey, please use the following link, perhaps just share with your counselors if they haven't used it already? It is a simple-ish survey that I think you would all find use for, even if you don't use the results. Just seeing the questions is worthwhile! 

Vegas AI

I spoke of this in the podcast, but last weekend, we went to Las Vegas for "The Wizard of Oz" at The Sphere. Incredible spectacle, if not pretty expensive. To be honest, everything costs a lot in Vegas. Late 60's and early 70's band The Cowsills were $72 per ticket.  The Cowsills are basically the Backstreet Boys of 1969. "Indian Lake". Their Biggest Hit that you've heard before, "the Rain, the Park and Other Things". In my research of this group (I'd heard of them, but kind of left me in the One Hit Wonder status), I found that they were actually the inspiration for the Partridge Family. Wow! I digress. 

A bigger phenomenon was the digitization of Vegas. I hadn't been there for seven years, but immediately noticed changes that were hard to watch. My son-in-law and a family friend and never been to Vegas, so rallied around the idea of playing Rolette, as it is fairly easy. We had a hard time finding a regular table. We did NOT have any trouble finding a Rolette station, essentially eight video games surrounding a rolette wheel. Everyone was separate unto their computer, but just sitting around in a digital circle with no pit boss, roller or anything. Even the ones that had a mini-Pit Boss still had the computer terminals. Yes, we could still find the human ones, but they were like 1-5% of what we saw. Vegas is going AI. How long will it be until we look at a trip to Vegas as unnecessary or not fun, as we are only going there to play digital poker or something you could do at the local VFW? How many jobs have been lost through this conversion? How does that shift affect other non-gambling economies in Vegas? We all know that answer--profoundly! 

To be honest, Vegas has changed so much in the last 7 years. I'm curious to see where it will be in 7 years. The trappings of our society are under severe change. How are we addressing this with the way we develop high school students for our economy and the work force? 

Have a great week! ~Patrick


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