Episode Overview
Pete and Peter start with a story job seekers have been waiting years for: the Texas Attorney General is going after LinkedIn over ghost job postings, subpoenas and all. Estimates put fake job postings at 20% to 33% of what’s out there, and Texas joins New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, and California in taking legal aim at the practice. Pete and Peter also get into an overlooked wrinkle: the federal government itself requires companies sponsoring H-1B visas to post jobs publicly, even when an H-1B candidate is already lined up, and plenty of private employers do the same thing internally. They cover what candidates can do to protect themselves from the fraud that follows fake postings, since sharing information like a Social Security number with the wrong company can cost real money.
From there, a Wall Street Journal story on employers hiring firms to research employees’ online activity, including tools that claim up to 70% accuracy at unmasking anonymous profiles. Pete and Peter debate where the line should be between legitimate screening and employers digging into people’s private lives, and why they think most of this has no business being an employer’s concern in the first place.
They also break down another Wall Street Journal piece on how a shrinking labor force (more workers are projected to leave than enter over the next four years) could actually make AI’s rise easier to absorb. Job openings and unemployed workers are sitting at close to a 1-to-1 ratio right now, and the economy has historically needed about 250,000 new jobs a month just to hold that balance. As the workforce shrinks, that number could approach zero, which may shift some leverage back toward workers even as AI adoption continues.
Layoffs this week: Verizon is closing 274 retail stores nationwide, and Volkswagen confirmed the largest layoff in automotive industry history. On a brighter note, weekly unemployment claims came in at 208,000, a historically low number.
Key Takeaways
- Texas AG targets LinkedIn over ghost jobs; 20% to 33% of postings estimated fake
- The H-1B visa loophole behind some “real” ghost jobs
- AI tools that research employees’ online activity, with up to 70% accuracy on anonymous profiles
- A shrinking labor force and what it means for AI adoption and worker leverage
- Verizon closes 274 retail stores; Volkswagen confirms record auto industry layoffs
- Weekly unemployment claims hold at a historically low 208,000
44 minutes
