FAKE JOBS – THE NEW EPIDEMIC
It is now widely accepted that much of what we see online nowadays is fake:
Legacy media trying to sell us on their opinion with conveniently altered news reports, “slop” from synthetic media, chatter from bots intended to seem like it’s from humans, strange AI-generated clickbait on social media and products for sale that are of much lower-quality than depicted, and much more.
This pervasive fakery, now is a hallmark of our digital age.
But now it’s spilling over into the labour market. While there has been an occasional focus on prospective or new hires ghosting employers, far less attention has been paid to positions being advertised that don’t actually exist. These are called “ghost jobs,” and they are demoralizing and disillusioning job seekers.
Earlier this month, Klarna’s chief executive officer, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, admitted that the fintech company had stopped hiring, but still advertises open positions. Posting a mirage of a vacancy allows a company to project success and hint at growth at the expense of people’s time, aspirations and emotional energy. Worse, firms engaged in this kind of tactic can surreptitiously signal to current employees that they are imminently replaceable.
Even worse: central bank pundits measure the strength of the labour market among other on advertised open positions.