The stagnating labor market has been a source of stress for many households, including for young people aged 18-24, who face higher unemployment rates than most other demographic cohorts.

For students graduating high school — and the counselors who advise them about career paths — it can be a stressful time full of important life decisions, including whether to go to a four-year college, a two-year technical school, or going right into the workforce. But these days, there’s another concern that’s adding complexity to these choices: artificial intelligence.

For more insight on this, we check in with Steve Schneider, a recently-retired high school counselor of almost 30 years in Sheboygan, WI, and adjunct professor at Marquette University. As part of our Economic Pulse series, he spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio about how AI is changing the way students and their advisors are thinking of the job market.

The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: First of all, congratulations on retirement. Here's a milestone for you.

Steve Schneider: Yes, 29 excellent years in education. Looking forward to however many more I have left in the next chapter.

Brancaccio: There you go, next chapter, he's evaluating now. So listen, the students -- we last talked during the depths of the pandemic, and a lot of people were not going off to school. What did you see in this last crop? Were you overwhelmed by the thundering herds of people trying to get into higher ed?

Schneider: No, to answer that directly. I mean, the pandemic was obviously, it is what it was, but the creep back to what was before the pandemic, there hasn't been a snap back, and there hasn't been a snap away. I think people are still just really being deliberate about thinking through, as a family, as a young person, what's the right choice. Even before the pandemic, we were getting there, which I think is a really good thing. That's a great place for kids to be.

Brancaccio: I mean, some of it even moreso now than even a couple of years ago, is what are the jobs that are going to be available that a person might want to get an education for in this world of AI, it's a little mysterious.

Schneider: Yeah, right. That's when I pull out my crystal ball in my office and we right look into the future. And this has been the case since I started, is in working with young people who are just trying to figure out, you know, they're just getting their understanding and comprehension of who they are, and trying to figure out how they want to plug into the world as a young adult. They're at that building block stage, so a lot of that unsure feeling about the future, I mean, that's been around since forever. This is a new wrinkle right? We have a new player in the game. AI is going to change this future; we're not quite sure how yet.

Brancaccio: I know. I mean, look, if you're looking for a slam dunk career, even if a student doesn't have passion for it, people would say, "Go into accounting, there's always going to be accountants." But we don't know that, especially entry level jobs that would be open to you in college and coming out of college. That might be a machine that does that.

Schneider: Yeah, name a career field, right? Paralegals. That's a great entrance into the legal field. That position may be gone in a couple of years. Working for large companies manufacturing, which is huge here in our county, all kinds of data analysts in place here. That could easily be replaced. Insurance, we've got huge insurance companies here in town. A lot of that work on data analysis for insurance companies probably going to go AI. So again, talking with kids about "What is it about that?" So if it's accounting, "What is it about accounting that you really, really like?" Let's see if we can break that down into what's appealing about accounting, and see if we can list other possible careers where you could utilize some cross-sectional skills so that you're not just pigeon holed to accounting necessarily. Go for it, pursue it, but if things change, you've already thought through some of the other options.