WSJ What’s News - State Lawmakers Try to Crack Down on ‘Ghost Jobs’

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

P.M. Edition for Aug. 21. “Ghost jobs”—posted roles that companies have no real intention of filling—are a big source of frustration for job seekers. Now, as Journal reporter Lauren Weber discusses, lawmakers in a few states are proposing bills to reel companies in. Plus, bitcoin just had its best week in two years. Vicky Ge Huang, who covers cryptocurrencies, explains what’s behind the surge. And President Trump is boosting U.S. beef imports in an effort to lower prices–but the cattle industry is pushing back. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

President Trump's latest attempt at lowering beef prices is getting pushback from the cattle industry. Plus, job seekers are tired of applying to ghost jobs. Some state lawmakers are trying to do something about it. And Bitcoin just had its best week in two years. Is the crypto winter over? It's almost like the investors are trying to get ahead of that eventual Wall Street, rush your money into the crypto space. It's Friday, August 21st. I'm Alex O'Sillif for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

We start today's show in Washington, where the Supreme Court said that President Trump can keep building his White House ballroom for now. The Supreme Court's interim measure has no expiration date, and it gives the justices more time to consider a lower court's order. That court said work should stop. The president says the 90,000 square foot project is needed for national security. Construction has been nearly around the clock, and the government says that the new complex is about two-thirds complete already. A longer-term decision from the Supreme Court could come at any time. President Trump is making more moves to ease high prices on beef.

He said on social media today that for the next 90 days, the U.S. will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported. reported without triggering higher tariff rates. He added that it comes with a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25% below current market prices. It's Trump's latest attempt to show Americans that his administration is taking steps to tame food inflation. And record high beef prices have been among the most stubborn sources of it for more than a year. But American cattle and rancher groups have pushed back against importing beef, saying it'll make it harder to rebuild the U.S. cattle herd. The White House says Trump will sign an executive order within the next.

next two weeks on the import plan. And we're exclusively reporting that about a dozen high-ranking officials were let go at Fannie Mae this week. Fannie backs major portions of the mortgage market. As news of the departures of the government mortgage giant spread today, there were worries about risks to Fannie's ability to provide stability to prices and activity in the industry. The federal housing finance agency oversees Fannie. The head of the FHFA, Bill Pulte, said on social media this afternoon that technology is providing opportunities to room move unnecessary processes and personnel. Spokespeople for the FHFA and Fannie Mae didn't respond to a request for comment.

In markets today, bond yields held near their highest levels in over a decade, despite the efforts of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to contain borrowing costs. The three major indexes also rose, with the Dow leading the games. It closed up 1%. For the week, though, the market benchmarks all closed in the red. Meanwhile, Bitcoin just had its best week in more than two years. It ended up 22% after peaking earlier today just under $80,000. Other major cryptocurrencies are also seeing a boost. One reason why, Vicky Gowong, who covers cryptocurrencies for the journal, says that the announcement that the government would buy back billions of dollars worth of bonds has made some investors think that lower treasury yields are coming.

That means lower returns on their investments, and that's pushed them to look for other investments, that could give them higher returns. It's driven investors toward higher-yielding, more speculative investments such as Bitcoin and gold. We've seen more than $1 billion of inflows into Bitcoin ETFs. Another factor contributing to Bitcoin's surge? On Wednesday, President Trump, who has made a lot of money from his crypto ventures, met with industry executives at the White House and pushed for crypto legislation. President Trump, he urged Congress to pass.

the Clarity Act, which is this bill that would be the first comprehensive regulatory framework for all digital assets. So people are rushing into Bitcoin now because if the Clarity Act were to be passed and signed into law, that would encourage a lot of Wall Street firms like banks and asset managers to get into the digital asset space either by launching their own products are offering their own services to clients. And that just means more money will pour into the digital asset space, driving up the prices of Bitcoin and other tokens. So it's almost like the investors are trying to get ahead of that eventual Wall Street,

rush your money into the crypto space. Federal auto safety regulators have opened an investigation into nearly one million General Motors pickup trucks and SUVs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has gotten almost 500 complaints about engine failure in vehicles, and these cars had already been serviced under a recall related to their V8 engines. GM says it's cooperating with regulators. Coming up, what do companies get out of posting roles that no one's ever hired for? More on that after the break.

Has this ever happened to you? You see a promising job on a place like LinkedIn. You update your resume and cover letter. hit submit, and then nothing. Sure, sometimes you just don't get the job. But according to an analysis of internal data by hiring platform greenhouse, companies have no real intention of filling as many as one in five of these supposed openings. And months later, the same ad might still be up or recently reposted. There's a name for this, ghost jobs. Job seekers are fed up with them. And now, in a few states, lawmakers are trying to do something about it too. Lauren Weber covers work

place issues for the journal and it's here now with more. So Lauren, New York is one of those states that's got legislation in the works. Lawmakers have passed a bill and sent it over to Governor Kathy Hochel. Earlier this week, she said she hadn't taken a look at it yet. Where else are we seeing these bills and what's in them? There is also a bill in Pennsylvania. And when I spoke to the state legislator who introduced that bill earlier this year, I asked him where it came from. And he said part of the impetus for the bill was that he has three kids who are looking for jobs right now. So it's a similar bill. It would require timelines and more transparency. So the idea is, you know, if a company posts a job, that it might say, we want to have this job filled by September 15th or help job seekers understand both what the timeline is if they do or don't hear back from a company. I hear this from job seekers all the time. You apply for a job. You hear nothing for weeks. I mean, sometimes you get a rejection letter two minutes later. Sometimes you don't hear anything for months. You know, it's very disempower. Do we have a sense of why this is happening in the first place?

You know, you hear different things about this. I will say what I hear from employers or from recruiters is, well, sometimes we post a job and then we end up not having the budget for it. Sometimes it really is there's no ill intention behind it. There's a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now. Nobody knows quite what's going to happen with things like tariffs or artificial intelligence. And sometimes I think employers are trying to be on the safe side post a job in case you suddenly. need to fill it, even though maybe you will, maybe you won't. But when you talk to job seekers, they're convinced that there are things happening like data harvesting, you know, that companies are putting up a job just so they can get your resume and your information to have it on file. Or some people think that companies are posting jobs so that their employees and their investors think that they're growing, think that the company is healthy and doing well. Okay, so let's say these bills become law. Can they solve these problems? It's hard to say. They do have enforcement mechanisms. So, for example, there are fines for companies that don't take down their job ads. If they have either filled them, they don't take the job ad down, or if they decide not to fill the role and they don't take it down. So, you know, whether or not there's money for that kind of enforcement, it's unclear because that takes effort and funds as well. But the idea is to give employers a sense that there are consequences for putting out these.

ads for jobs that they will never fill and dashing the hopes of many job seekers. Journal reporter Lauren Weber, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow you can look out for our weekly markets wrap up, What's News and Markets. Then on Sunday, we'll have the final episode of our AI Therapist series about where efforts stand to regulate the growing industry of AI for mental health. That's in What's News Sunday.

And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansy with Supervising, producer Tali Arbell. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Ishael Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And I'm Alex Osala. Have a great weekend and thanks for listening.