Why Do Ghost Jobs Still Haunt Us?

A quick stroll through the most notable job boards online reveals what appears to be an oasis of employment for even the thirstiest of job hunters. But any amount of time spent trying to get a drink exposes a heartbreaking mirage.

Back in March, for example, the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the nation’s economy added more than 275,000 jobs in February. This surpassed most expectations.

And that sounds great. Until you realize that the agency reported 8.8 million job openings on the last day of that same month.

While this would seem to favor job seekers, the results speak for themselves. If we’re to believe these numbers, employers are filling – on average – less than 4 percent of the jobs in any given month.

A Prevalence of Ghost Jobs

So what’s behind this obvious disconnect?

Clarify Capital, a New York City boutique lending firm, wanted to know, too. The commercial lender polled more than 1,000 HR managers back in October about these so-called ghost jobs.

(Quick aside here: While the experts typically define ghost jobs as positions that don’t exist or have already been filled, this survey focused on job openings that linger online without ever being filled.)

What the company found was, well, less than encouraging:

  • 68% of managers admitted to having jobs posted longer than 30 days.

  • 1 out of every 10 HR managers had a job posting listed for more than 6 months.

  • And about half of the managers surveyed said that they kept job postings open because they’re “always open to new people.”

“Anyone looking to avoid applying for ‘ghost jobs’ should pay close attention to when they were first posted,” Clarify Capital project manager Joe Mercurio explained. “Despite 96% of employers claiming they’re actively trying to fill an open role quickly, 40% of employers don’t expect to fill their active job posts for two to three months…This can happen for many different reasons, but checking to see when a job was posted could help prevent job seekers from applying for ‘ghost jobs.’ A job that was posted 48 hours ago is more likely to be actively hiring than a job that was posted three months ago.”

But Why?

So why would companies do this? Clarify Capital’s poll revealed a few reasons, aside from keeping a talent pool on hold, including:

  • Keeping existing employees motivated.

  • To provide an illusion of growth.

  • They filled the position but failed to take the listing down.

  • “Just in case.”

These explanations vary from the cruelly cynical to the incompetent. When did HR become party of the marketing department?

Either way, this flood of fake job openings has helped make the hiring process more protracted than buying a house. The latest estimate – for the first quarter of 2023 – pinned the average “time to hire” at 44 days. That’s more than six weeks.

“Whatever may be happening in the world economy currently, it is clear that supply and demand are not in sync in terms of the type of skills available and the gaps that need to be filled,” said Josh Bersin, global HR research analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Co., said in a press release in June.

This lack of urgency seems to defy what you read in the news – endless stories of talent-starved companies desperate for workers. I don’t think I’m buying that anymore.

LinkedIn is for Losers

One last thing: I heard from a (recent) former LinkedIn employee who admitted outright that most of the jobs listed on the site either aren’t vacant or just don’t exist. She added that, if you wanted to look for genuine job openings, you have to comb through individual employee posts. 

“Those,” she said, “you can trust.”

Of course, this implies that job sites such as LinkedIn are in on the scam. It’s also probably why HR trade groups – such as the Society for Human Resourcement Management (SHRM) – only talk about prospects “ghosting” employers. Not a word on their website about ghost jobs. Which is odd for a website dedicated to hiring – and hiring managers. 

Needless to say, they did not respond to a request for comment.

So, as if job hunting wasn’t perilous enough – littered as it is with growing self-identification surveys (how is that legal?) to more interviews per opening than a Bob Woodward book. It’s little wonder, then, why nearly 2 million people have pulled out of the workforce since 2020.