Who’s afraid of ghost jobs

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

The protocol for life after a layoff used to be straightforward: update your CV and apply for as many new jobs as possible.

As downsizing continues to rock the tech industry, however, many jobseekers now face a hurdle that hides in plain sight. They are unwittingly applying and even interviewing for ‘ghost jobs’ – positions advertised online that the company has no intention of filling. They are candidates for jobs that do not exist. 

The hallmarks of a ghost job will likely be familiar to anyone who regularly peruses online job boards and LinkedIn. Telltale signs include when a job ad remains posted for upwards of 30 days or even months on end, and when a position is advertised on a third-party career board but not on the company’s website and social media feeds. 

In a 2024 MyPerfectResume survey of 753 recruiters across the U.S., 81% said they have posted ghost jobs on behalf of their employer. In many organizations, the practice has even become routine: Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that ghost jobs account for “about a quarter” or “about half” of the positions they advertise online. The trend is reportedly also widespread throughout Europe and the UK. 

Ghost jobs may be especially prevalent in tech, according to an open-source “red-flag list” of organizations believed to partake in the practice. For jobseekers navigating an already competitive job market, ghost jobs are a discouraging waste of time and energy. For the hiring managers on the other side of the recruitment process, the relative costs and benefits are decidedly mixed.

Why companies post ghost jobs

Although ghost jobs appear to be on the rise, several tech-industry recruiters and hiring managers tell LeadDev that the practice isn’t new. “This has been a reality for a very long time, but now it’s so widespread that it’s getting noticed,” said Ravi Goel, a managing partner at Even & Odd Minds, an IT consulting and staffing services company in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Jasmine Escalera, a Miami-based career coach and the author of MyPerfectResume’s ghost job survey report, tells LeadDev that labor market fluctuations are likely to blame for the trend’s recent surge. “Within just the past few years we have seen shifts from a tight labor market and hiring shortages, to hiring freezes and layoffs,” Escalera said. “These swings can create an environment where recruiters may use ghost jobs to manage uncertainty and prepare for potential needs.” 

The recruiters surveyed by MyPerfectResume listed numerous reasons for their companies’ use of ghost jobs, such as maintaining a presence on job boards and gaining insight into the job market and business competitors. However, the majority of the experts who spoke with LeadDev believe that most of the tech companies engaging in the practice are doing so primarily to harvest potential future candidates. 

“When recruiting talent for technical positions, timing is often an issue, and many recruiters find themselves getting access to talent too late when it comes time for them to fill a specific position,” said Richard Robbins, the Nashville-based co-founder of TheTechnologyVault.com.   “I’ve had several people I wanted to hire in the past who, despite preferring to work for me, had just taken a position and felt like they couldn’t suddenly change course. Instead of waiting for a specific job to be filled, recruiters try to get ahead by putting out ‘bait’ for technical people who are in the market for a job change.”

In today’s tech industry, fierce competition over a glut of highly-skilled workers has only increased the pressure to “have access to a warm talent pool at the ready,” said Damien Filiatrault, the CEO of Scalable Path, a global staffing agency for freelance developers headquartered in San Francisco. “Technology is advancing quite rapidly, and companies fear it might be too late to recruit tech talents by the time they have the capacity to do so.”

Ghost postings are also leveraged to boost a company’s image. “For recruiters, posting these roles can serve as a way to maintain visibility in a competitive job market, even when actual openings are scarce,” said Dhanvin Sriram, the Dubai-based founder of Luppa.AI. 

The appearance of a hiring boom projects stability and growth to prospective talent and stakeholders. This may help to explain why ghost jobs seem to be more pervasive in tech than other sectors. 

“Based on why companies post ghost jobs, it’s reasonable to speculate that industries hard hit by layoffs or economic turmoil might be more likely to engage in this trend,” Escalera said. 

How managers can push back

Despite the numerous rationales a company might have for advertising ghost jobs, the practice can backfire against a company’s public standing. 

“On one hand, maintaining a talent pipeline can be a legitimate strategy,” said Amit Doshi, founder and CEO of the cybersecurity job recruitment platform MyTurn and based near Washington, D.C. “On the other hand, it can mislead job seekers, wasting their time and eroding trust. From a candidate’s perspective, applying for non-existent roles is disheartening and could damage a company’s reputation in the long run.” 

Some believe that the drawbacks outweigh the potential benefits altogether. “As a recruiter myself, I find ghost jobs to be inefficient and ultimately damaging to the industry,” Sriram said. 

While hiring managers may not always have the final word over their company’s hiring practices, some argue that managers can play a key role in either perpetrating ghost job postings, or pushing back against them. 

Filiatrault points out that, rather than complying with directives to advertise questionable roles, managers could decline to create postings for positions that aren’t currently open, instead recommending they be listed at a later time. 

Managers could also recommend that the company label such postings as “future opportunities” to clarify that the roles are not immediately available. “By encouraging candid conversation and ensuring that recruitment processes are aligned with the actual demands, they can help rebuild trust with both candidates and recruitment teams,” Filiatrault said.

Sriram agreed, adding, “Ideally, middle managers should advocate for transparency in the recruitment process and ensure that job postings reflect real hiring intentions. Unfortunately, in many cases, they may not have the influence to stop ghost jobs from being posted, but they  should be the ones questioning and validating whether these openings are truly necessary.”