Ghost jobs

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Today's jobs report shows a slight rise in unemployment to 4%. And some frustrated job seekers are growing tired of applying for job after job with no replies, sometimes asking whether the listings are even real. And this isn't just vexing for applicants. It's also haunting economists when trying to figure out how much slack there is in the labor market, and whether interest rates should be raised or lowered. Today on the show: the rise of ghost jobs. Where they're happening and why.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. Welcome to the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darien Woods.
0:15.0	And I'm Whelan Wong.
0:17.0	Have a seat. It is Jobs Friday.
0:19.0	We have the latest employment report, where we learn more about jobs and curious corners of the labor market.
0:25.8	And today's report, it's a spooky one, even a ghostly one.
0:29.7	Yes, some indicators are going up, others going down.
0:35.0	It's like a poltergeist, tossing numbers around just to mess with our heads.
0:40.0	Two hundred and seventy two thousand jobs added to the US economy in May.
0:45.0	That's considered solid and yet again more than expected.
0:49.0	But unemployment also ticked up a little to 4%. This week we heard from some of you who are
0:54.5	confused about the job market. One listener Mary Nakasone wrote in to tell us
0:58.9	about her daughter who recently graduated from college. She's been applying to many, many jobs,
1:05.9	and she just gets no responses at all.
1:09.2	Mary had a question for us at the indicator.
1:11.7	I heard that these job postings are fake.
1:14.0	What would be the advantage to a company to post jobs when they don't want to hire?
1:18.0	Disappearing jobs, listings scattered to the wind. this sounds like a case for us.
1:25.0	Today on the show, ghost jobs.
1:28.0	Job listings even real anymore.
1:31.0	And if not why.
1:33.0	there's something strange on your job websites who you're gonna call the indicator.
1:40.0	The jobs market is in a mysterious place right now.
	...

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