Ghost Jobs! Your comprehensive guide into this growing phenomenon

An increasing number of job seekers have been reporting that the positions they are applying for are not real.? This phenomenon has been deemed “ghost jobs”!?

If you’re new to the job market or reentering it after a long period, you may be asking, “What is a ghost job?”? Wikipedia defines it as: A?fake job, or?phantom job posting for a position that is non-existent or has already been filled.”? So, the next logical question is then why would a company do that in the first place?? Let’s look at some data and then explore behind the scenes from a Recruiting and HR perspective.

Over the past several years following the Pandemic, Great Resignation, and rolling layoffs, etc., this trend has been picking up momentum as seen below when searching for the term in Google Trends.

In a recent Newsweek article, they report that 39% of hiring managers surveyed said that their company posted fake jobs in the past year.? They also reported approximately 26 percent posted up to three fake job listings; 19 percent posted five; 19 percent posted 10; 11 percent posted 50; 10 percent posted 25; and 13 percent posted 75 or more. ('Ghost Jobs' Are on the Rise - Newsweek ).?

Clearly this is an unacceptable practice, and it certainly doesn’t help build trust in companies, especially considering the job market over the past several years (regardless of any perceived benefit).? Additionally, this can skew government data and job reports.? For example, the headline today on 8/21/24, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was revising down job growth by 818,000 jobs or 68,000 jobs per month from the 12 months ending in March. (CES Preliminary Benchmark Announcement ( bls.gov ) ).? Before we jump to conclusions and believe every job you’ve never heard back from is a ghost job, let’s explore some of the potential reasons.

Some real reasons you won’t see in the headlines:

• Systems that don’t take down old postings or automatically re-activate closed postings: Many Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), Candidate Marketing Systems (CMS), or Job boards don’t have automatic closing of jobs after a period of time or once they are filled for various reasons.? There have also been reports that some major job boards reactivate old posting without authorization.
• Understaffed Recruiting/HR departments don’t have time or forget to close old postings:? The excitement is focused on the new hire when a position is filled, and the back end administrative tasks tend to be delayed or overlooked.? This can be particularly true if there is an influx of new job volume Recruiting and HR professionals are contending with.
• Evergreen requisitions:? These types of postings are for a role that the company is consistently hiring for.? They may keep them up for an extended period as they are constantly interviewing for them.
• Forecasted openings: Companies are on different hiring cycles.? They can vary by calendar or fiscal year, seasonality, headcount budget all at once or gradually over time, emergency or confidential replacements, etc.? In some cases, roles may be posted in anticipation of a position getting approved or early for roles that were previously forecasted for a specific timeframe.? If something changes in the business while the posting is live, they may not move forward.? Since interest rates control momentum and economic growth, lower rates typically stimulate the economy resulting in more jobs.? Predications and forecasts have been all over as the Federal Reserve attempts to bring down inflation, and this can cause business forecasts and job postings to be just as erratic.
• Internal hiring: Sometimes a hiring manager has a current employee or several employees they are considering (known as internal candidates) but would like to compare internal talent with the external talent market. Most companies will look to hire internally first, offering new opportunities for employee growth. This can be an indicator of a good company culture but also a reason that you may not have received a response to your application.
• Gauging the job market for a particular skill, location, etc.: These situations vary, but if a company is unsure of a location, compensation, or availability of qualified talent, they may post a role just to gauge and test the market.
• Misalignment to the market: Great Recruiters and HR Professionals do their best to be an advisor to hiring officials, leveraging their expertise and knowledge of the market to ensure the hiring process is setup for success.? Yet, in some instances there's a gap between expectations and available talent, causing roles to remain open for extended periods of time until something changes.? Common misalignments tend to be around experience, technical skills, or compensation/budget.
• Keeping employees motivated or generating a false impression of hiring/growing: This is a strange one and could reflect a negative company culture.? On one hand, scaring employees to stay in their roles by showing they are replaceable will usually backfire, especially when it becomes a job seeker driven market.? On the other hand, trying to hold onto employees by falsely signaling growth and “help on the way” may buy time but can have equally dire consequences.
• Sometimes you are not a fit for the role, or they’ve already received enough applications: This falls into the ghost job category and can be part of the reason you’ve never heard back.? Once recruiters and HR professionals have enough qualified applicants selected to interview, they will rarely go back to the remainder of the applicant pool.? Most ATS systems will provide an email thanking you for your interest and closing out your application but sometimes those steps are manual, may not activate until the job closes (45+ days later), or systems can glitch.

So, what can you do to not fall victim to these circumstances?

• Beware of old postings: Positions that are more than 30 days old have a higher probability the role is either very far along in the process or filled.? “Time-to-fill” is a metric used in recruiting and typically measures the time a role is opened to the time an offer is accepted.? The average time ranges from 45 to 60 days for most companies/professional positions, with higher level roles being 75+ days.? After 30 days, roles are nearing the finish line or could be in the offer stage.? You can still apply just in case something changes or you want to ensure your information is available in their database.
• Direct contact: Reach out to the Recruiter, HR Manager, or Hiring manager directly:? If you see an outdated posting or closed role you were watching suddenly repost out of nowhere, it’s best to reach out to someone at the company directly to verify and confirm your interest.
• Details matter: Look to see who is posting the job and how much detail is being provided.? Is it a company, recruiting firm, or posting service?? All are ok as long as they are legitimate and have a good amount of details and specifics listed.? On LinkedIn, you can see even more details about the company.? Make sure they post regularly, have some followers, etc.? If you have a Premium LinkedIn account, you can look up company pages to see open jobs, current employees, and even insights on growth like in the example chart below.

• Do your research: Sites like Glassdoor, Fishbowl, Reddit, Layoffs.fyi , etc. will have more insightful information about a company.? If they are on a hiring freeze, those roles may not be active even though they are posted.? Keep in mind though, layoffs don’t necessarily mean hiring freezes.? Companies will still fill critical roles as they continue to do business.? Check out more helpful job search tips in this previous article.
• Networking: This is the #1 way to stand out and land your next role quicker.? Connecting with people you know, being referred through your network, or meeting new contacts helps you stand out quickly amongst hundreds or thousands of other applicants for a role.

#ghostjobs #jobs #hiring #staffingagency #recruiting #xfactor

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