This labor market is ripe for job scams
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this rough labor market, job seekers are more vulnerable to scams. We’ve all seen those texts, right? The ones offering jobs with suspiciously high pay for suspiciously little work? On today’s show, Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab joins Kimberly to share what happened when she replied to one of these scam messages. Plus, why AI and the shift to remote work has fueled the rise in job scams.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "Job scam texts have become more frequent and more believable" from Marketplace
- "Who experiences scams? A story for all ages" from the Federal Trade Commission
- "Job Scam Texts Are Duping Gen Z, Millennials Amid Unemployment Fears" from Business Insider
Join us tomorrow for “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
Transcript
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| 1:03.5 | Hello everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart or none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 1:10.3 | It has been rough out there in the job market, |
| 1:14.8 | and especially if you happen to be a federal worker right now. It's been particularly rough |
| 1:19.8 | in your own job or even looking for a new one. But in the job market more broadly, |
| 1:25.0 | that means more people could be vulnerable to job scams. We've all seen |
| 1:30.1 | those texts offering obscure roles with really high pay and few hours. They found your resume |
| 1:36.7 | and they think you'd just be perfect for the job. These scams are becoming more common and |
| 1:42.0 | they're getting more effective. And my colleague, Christian Schwab, |
| 1:44.8 | has recently done a little experiment where she replied to one of these spam texts to see how |
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