Why ‘Ghost Jobs’ Are a Bad Idea for Business, Experts Say

If you’re looking for a new position, you may have unknowingly stumbled upon a ghost job posting, or even applied for one, with no intention of hiring a candidate for the position.

According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, there were about 8.1 million job openings nationwide as of May of this year. But a number of them may be entirely fake — though that’s hard to measure with certainty — as companies admit to posting fake job postings in an effort to boost their company’s reputation, keep current employees in the loop, and preemptively gather information about candidates for real jobs that might become available in the future.

Companies aren’t shy about saying so. A June study by Resume Builder found that three in 10 job postings online are for positions that don’t exist or for which the company has no real intention of hiring. That’s about a third of the companies surveyed that currently have fake job openings, according to the survey. Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm, found in an October 2023 survey that the share of interview reviews mentioning “recruiter ghosting” (when a company doesn’t respond to a candidate) has increased 120% over the past five years.

Yet the prospect of ghost posting doesn’t bother around seven in ten hiring managers. The study found that 43% of them think it’s completely acceptable, while 27% think it’s probably acceptable. At the other end of the scale, 20% don’t consider it acceptable and 10% think the practice is not justifiable at all.

But that sentiment is unlikely to be shared by anyone looking for a new role. According to a 2023 survey by Stand Out CV, the average person has to make 162 applications to land a job, and 27 of those applications to get a single interview. If a number of those job postings are being posted by hiring managers with no intention of filling the position, it can be a huge waste of time.

“Ghost job offers can mean that they are [job seekers] “We’re spending even more time, completely unnecessary, to make the job search process even more tedious,” said Aidan Cramer, founder and CEO of AIApply. Newsweek“It’s also demoralizing: job seekers may have spent hours polishing a single application, only to receive no response or feedback.”

Why do companies post fake job offers?

From a company perspective, ghost posting jobs gives the impression that the company is open to external talent (67%) and gives the impression that the company is growing (66%), according to the Resume Builder survey.

Prestina Yarrington, career and development coach, said: Newsweek that “ghost job postings are used to assess the pool of candidates currently available on the market.”

“The job market is either candidate-driven or employer-driven. This study allows recruiting teams to understand whether the skills they typically hire are readily available in the market or whether they are in short supply,” she explained. “This allows companies to assess hiring timelines and predict how long it will take to hire someone once a position becomes available.”

Sometimes this can be “informative if an organization is looking to assess the job market in a particular field or for a specific skill set,” explained Brian Smith, organizational psychologist and founder of IA Business Advisors. Newsweek“In some cases, companies may use them to understand competition or talent availability. Even so, the potential negative impact on job seekers and the company’s reputation outweighs any informational benefit.”

“It’s questionable whether these fake job offers give a positive impression,” said Geoff Newman, founder of UK-based recruitment agency Stargeta. NewsweekHe said he works with a U.K.-based company “that spends over $2 million on job advertising each year with no expectation of placing candidates,” a tactic by its marketing department “that wants to appear more impressive than it is.”

Fake job postings are used not only to trick job seekers into thinking the company is doing well, but also to trap current employees. In the Resume Builder survey, 62% of companies that use this practice said fake job postings are created to make employees feel “replaceable,” while 63% said it tricks them into believing their workload will eventually be lightened by new hires.

“This is a troubling scenario, especially when these misleading offers come from HR departments, the same entities responsible for shaping the accurate perception of their organizations,” said Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder. “Employees deserve transparency about the companies they’re devoting their time to, rather than being misled by false claims. Any tactic that undermines employees’ sense of value and security is deplorable.”

A cause for concern?

Some recruiting experts who spoke to Newsweek Some have expressed concern about fake job postings, largely because the practice is unfair to candidates looking for new, genuine opportunities and damages a company’s reputation. But others have said it can even skew job market statistics.

“I think ghost jobs can inflate some numbers, but it’s not as clear-cut as people might think,” said Justin Marcus, co-founder and CEO of Big 4 Talent. Newsweek“Much of the data on “open jobs” comes from JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey), a monthly survey, telephone interviews, and surveys, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reviews and adjusts for errors.”

“If the majority of ghost jobs are coming from companies posting jobs to ‘build brand awareness’ or to have a pool of candidates for potential future positions, this could contribute significantly to inflating the numbers.”

“There is no way to tell on LinkedIn, company websites or any other job board whether a job posting is real or fake,” Yarrington said. “So when the data is pulled by the Department of Labor or others looking for job data, it is distorted. When that data is shared, it gives false hope and expectations to job seekers and the economy at large.”

Regardless of the potential impact on official data, this practice is strongly condemned by some recruitment experts, as it is unfair to the candidate and current employees and can have serious consequences for the reputation of companies.

“With websites like Glassdoor becoming more popular, job seekers could be posting about their experience and deterring other potential candidates from applying for future positions because they’ll think it’s a waste of time,” Cramer said. “Plus, if they completely ignore applications that land in their inbox, they risk missing out on the perfect candidate, who is unlikely to apply again after being ignored.”