Hi! Pretty lethargic start to February, am I right? But with Valentines Day coming up how about we cheer your spirits up with a little something:

She quips, she nags, and she pouts with her whole face,
He sighs, he mutters, and he is brooding at his own pace,
A cough, a scribble, the waiter scoffs at me with a low bass,
I grim, I loathe, as I sit lonely eyeing that couple at this food place!

A little snappy wisecrack at the ongoing valentine’s week, and don’t forget to gift your significant other a teddy today for the occasion. Now let’s get started with our regular!

Today’s special:

A Ghost Job Plague: Job postings and its subsequent hiring seem to somehow be in a situation-ship i.e. leading absolutely nowhere…
Zapped By The Bills: Data insight estimates that electricity bills are about to rise yet again!
CDs In The Big 2026: Are people still buying Vinyl & CDs in the world of music streaming?

America’s labor market looks busy on the surface. Job boards are full, openings remain elevated, and hiring portals refresh daily. But beneath that activity sits a growing, distorted reality: job roles are being advertised publicly despite no real intent to hire. Currently, 27.4% of online job postings qualify as ghost jobs as per the Entrepreneur. These job postings are dubious to say the least, considering the fact that they are already filled, indefinitely on hold or never meant to be filled in the first place. That figure alone is substantial enough to inflate perceptions of labor demand, especially against the backdrop of an economic momentum that is already fragile. The mismatch shows up clearly in federal hiring data. In August 2025, the U.S. recorded 7.2 million job openings, but employers made only 5.1 million hires that same month leaving more than 2.1 million openings without a corresponding hire. While not every unfilled opening is a ghost job, the scale of the gap suggests that a significant portion of postings may exist largely on paper.

The persistence of ghost jobs becomes even more concerning when placed alongside stalled hiring trends. CNBC notes that in late 2025, job postings remained elevated even as hiring momentum flattened, adding “another layer of uncertainty” to an already weak jobs picture. In other words, the signal of open roles and the outcome of actual employment are drifting further apart. The numbers become more harrowing when the hiring momentum is examined over the course of time. The widening gulf between openings and hires has persisted at a rate of 28.4% in 2025 as per the JOLTS data, meaning millions of posted roles each month never result in a hire.
Employer behavior helps explain why. Hiring experts cited by The Interview Guys note that nearly one in three employers admits to posting fake listings with no intention of hiring, often to build resume pipelines, test compensation levels, or project growth externally even as 45% of HR professionals say they post ghost jobs regularly, and another 48% do so occasionally, turning a fringe tactic into a normalized hiring strategy. Taken together, the evidence suggests ghost jobs aren’t a statistical fluke. They are a structural feature of a labor market that looks active, feels stagnant, and is increasingly difficult to read.

U.S. electricity bills have been increasing, but the data shows a slower, structural climb rather than a sudden shock. Residential electricity bills were expected to run higher over the summer months, with U.S. homeowners facing an average monthly bill of about $178 between June and September 2025, up from $173 during the summer of 2024, according to the EIA, as rising rates outweighed slightly lower usage driven by cooler forecasts. Solar Learning Centre’s review of power pricing finds that between June 2024 and June 2025, the average residential electricity rate rose by 6.7%, adding about $162 annually to household power bills while using the same amount of electricity. The average U.S. electricity rates have surged to a steep 34% increase from 2021 to 2025, and average rates may reach up to 36% in 2026 compared to 2020. This trajectory far exceeds normal historical patterns when compared with long-term utility pricing norms nationwide.

Regional pricing trends reveal sharp divergence beneath the national average. Between 2020 and 2026, residential electricity prices are expected to rise by 49% in the Pacific and 48% in the Middle Atlantic, compared with just 18% in the West North Central region, underscoring the unevenness of electricity cost inflation across the U.S. Based on data from the US Energy Information Administration, the average electricity bill is projected to reach an estimated $165 per month, based on the national electricity price of 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, with the assumption that an average household typically consumes 875 kWh on a monthly basis.
State-level data shows just how uneven those costs can be. ElectricChoice reports the current national average monthly electric bill at $169.80, but that average spans a wide range: households in Hawaii pay $437.20 per month on average, while residents in Washington average $109.30. Geography, fuel mix, and grid costs continue to outweigh usage alone in determining bills. Household size doesn’t flatten those differences; instead, it’s widening the divide. For two-person households, an average monthly electricity bill of $169 is incurred, as per the latest data. Within this group, regional variation remains persistent: two-person households in the South average $177 per month, as opposed to $132 in the Midwest, $178 and $141 in the Northeast, and in the West, respectively. The conclusion is less about an abrupt one-off spike and more about a slow but steady repricing of electricity. Bills are increasing even when usage holds flat.

The trajectory of the music industry is unmistakable. After the generational collapse of CDs and an all-time financial low in 2014, the sector rejuvenated itself through streaming. Ever since, it has gone to double its revenue as listeners moved on to subscriptions and on-demand platforms. Globally, streaming wasn’t just a trailblazer; it was the ultimate dominator in 2024. Streaming accounted for 69% of the total recorded music revenues, with subscription streaming alone increasing to 9.5% and crossing the $20 billion mark for the first time. Streaming was responsible for 84% of mid-year 2025 revenue. Conversely, paid subscriptions surged up to 105 million accounts and generated a whopping $3.2 billion on their own. The baseline is clear: streaming wasn't just a temporary fix for the music business, but the recovery itself.

Instead of becoming obsolete, physical copies have found a new runway in the premium lane. IFPI’s global data reports a 3.1% decline in the physical category in 2024, but this mitigation comes right after a huge 14.5% jump from the prior year. Vinyl, the format that refuses to see the end, celebrated its 18th consecutive year of growth, rising up to 4.6%. The physical format is now a distribution system that creates demand through its scarcity. In the U.S., they still command value. In the first half of 2025, physical-format generated $576.4 million in revenue. 22.1 million units were moved, signaling its tenacity in the backdrop of the streaming era. Additionally, physical formats generated a solid $456.9 million, while CDs declined to 11.7 million units. Physical music revenue continues to grow as vinyl outsells CDs for the fifth year.
By changing its semantics from default delivery systems to collectable goods, hard copies have found a way to stay relevant in an otherwise streaming era. Owning a vinyl now is a statement; it means having ownership over merch with cultural significance and tangibility; this has made physical copies a niche that streaming can’t replicate.

Can you guess two critical minerals which the U.S. imports 100% of?

[Answer Below]

Answer Here

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