Ghost jobs and funny numbers.
The impressive job vacancy numbers over in the old US of A offer us a great chance to unpack why relying on big data can sometimes lead us astray in our prediction and policy assumptions.
Ghost jobs refer to companies posting job adds for jobs they never intend to fill - either they use these ads as bait to compile CV databases (sometimes even data for training LLMs), or they use them to trick investors, competitors and customers into thinking their business is growing faster than it is.
Whatever the motives, the reality is that the existence or ghost jobs makes job vacancies are rather inaccurate measure of economic reality - and goes someway to explain the “vibesession” betweeen anecdotal tiktok jobseekers unable to land a job and political boasts of job growth opportunities…
Always remember - what gets measured can and will get managed - and manipulated.
What other numbers do we rely on for our assumptions that are perhaps not quite what they seem?
When data clashes with anecdote - what do you do to untangle the truth?
Let me know.
Read more :
Spooky : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM6bxqus6/
The scary future of work : https://fluxtrends.com/the-lockdown-life-audit-private-salon/
Ghost employees : https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-07-20-ghost-employees-on-payrolls-a-major-occupational-fraud-hazard/
Do you believe in ghosts?