If you’ve applied to a job and never heard back, you may have fallen prey to a ghost job — an online listing for a role that never actually existed.

Ghost jobs aren’t just leaving job seekers frustrated. They’re also muddying the waters of the labor market when it comes to assessing the strength of the economy.

On today’s Big Take podcast, Sarah Holder digs into the ghost job phenomenon with Molly Smith, an editor on Bloomberg’s US economy team.

If you’ve applied to a job and never heard back, you may have fallen prey to a ghost job — an online listing for a role that never actually existed.
Ghost jobs aren’t just leaving job seekers frustrated. They’re also muddying the waters of the labor market when it comes to assessing the strength of the economy.
On today’s Big Take podcast, Sarah Holder digs into the ghost job phenomenon with Molly Smith, an editor on Bloomberg’s US economy team.

The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

Big Take

Ghost Jobs Are Haunting the Labor Market

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/b414af0a-7099-4a7d-8332-b1bf014b86f6/transcript

In April of 2023, a man carrying a small, black box walked into one of the nation’s most secure buildings, right next to the White House. In the box were ingredients that could be used to create a bioweapon. What the man revealed about how he got his hands on these ingredients was even scarier: an AI chatbot had given him the recipe.

On today’s Big Take, host David Gura speaks to Bloomberg healthcare reporter Riley Griffin about why that stunt alarmed White House officials and woke them up to the potential dangers of AI-made bioweapons. 

Read more: AI-Made Bioweapons Are Washington’s Latest Security Obsession

Further listening: 
We Can’t Opt Out of AI (But We Can Try)
AI Wreaks Havoc on Global Power Systems

In April of 2023, a man carrying a small, black box walked into one of the nation’s most secure buildings, right next to the White House. In the box were ingredients that could be used to create a bioweapon. What the man revealed about how he got his hands on these ingredients was even scarier: an AI chatbot had given him the recipe.
On today’s Big Take, host David Gura speaks to Bloomberg healthcare reporter Riley Griffin about why that stunt alarmed White House officials and woke them up to the potential dangers of AI-made bioweapons. 
Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-08-02/national-security-threat-from-ai-made-bioweapons-grips-us-government?srnd=homepage-americas">AI-Made Bioweapons Are Washington’s Latest Security Obsession</a>
Further listening: 
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-29/openai-scarlett-johansson-google-s-ai-overview-and-news">We Can’t Opt Out of AI (But We Can Try)</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-24/microsoft-apple-amazon-ai-energy-needs-straining-ireland-us-malaysia-power-g">AI Wreaks Havoc on Global Power Systems</a></li>
</ul>

The Threat of AI-Made Bioweapons

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/13633dbb-1230-4237-9193-b1c0013179e8/transcript

Each year in April, the US conducts a lottery that shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And each year, only around 85,000 are granted an H-1B visa for highly-skilled workers. With skyrocketing application numbers, the odds of winning have only gotten slimmer. But new data obtained by Bloomberg News has revealed how certain companies have manipulated the system, gaining an advantage over people who play it fair. In other words, the game was rigged.

On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder speaks to investigative journalists Eric Fan and Zachary Mider who explain how outsourcing companies and staffing firms exploited loopholes in the H-1B system to get extra shots at the lottery. 

Read more: How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program

Each year in April, the US conducts a lottery that shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And each year, only around 85,000 are granted an H-1B visa for highly-skilled workers. With skyrocketing application numbers, the odds of winning have only gotten slimmer. But new data obtained by Bloomberg News has revealed how certain companies have manipulated the system, gaining an advantage over people who play it fair. In other words, the game was rigged.
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder speaks to investigative journalists Eric Fan and Zachary Mider who explain how outsourcing companies and staffing firms exploited loopholes in the H-1B system to get extra shots at the lottery. 
Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-staffing-firms-game-h1b-visa-lottery-system/">How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program</a>

How Companies Gamed the H-1B Visa Lottery

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/dfa142b9-d880-49db-9707-b1be015ec81b/transcript

Costs are rising in Japan and small businesses risk being squeezed into oblivion if they don’t figure out how to raise their prices. After decades of deflation, many small Japanese companies are out of practice on exactly how to do it.

Today on The Big Take Asia, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks to Bloomberg senior editor Reed Stevenson about a class he visited where people are relearning the long-lost skill of negotiation, and what a failure to raise prices at these small businesses – which make up 90% of the economy – could mean for Japan’s future.

Read more: BOJ to Cut Bond Buying as Fate of Rate Policy Stirs Jitters 

Costs are rising in Japan and small businesses risk being squeezed into oblivion if they don’t figure out how to raise their prices. After decades of deflation, many small Japanese companies are out of practice on exactly how to do it.
Today on The Big Take Asia, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks to Bloomberg senior editor Reed Stevenson about a class he visited where people are relearning the long-lost skill of negotiation, and what a failure to raise prices at these small businesses – which make up 90% of the economy – could mean for Japan’s future. Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-28/boj-set-to-cut-bond-buying-as-fate-of-rate-policy-stirs-jitters?sref=bgfDoBLq">BOJ to Cut Bond Buying as Fate of Rate Policy Stirs Jitters </a>

Japan’s Small Businesses Have a Problem. They Don’t Know How to Raise Prices

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/4d4241be-0f50-431b-ad69-b1bd015a5200/transcript

Ghost Jobs Are Haunting the Labor Market

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