Ghost Jobs: Why Companies Post Openings They Don’t Intend to Fill
Insights | New Stardom
Illustration by Carlos PX
One in five job advertisements currently circulating on major recruitment platforms is unlikely to lead to an actual hire, and in some industries such as construction, arts, and legal services the figure rises well above thirty percent, showing how widespread the practice has become across different parts of the labour market. Employers openly acknowledge that many of these listings do not correspond to genuine vacancies, with research reported by The Guardian indicating that four out of ten companies admit to publishing positions that are never intended to be filled, which suggests that the phenomenon is not marginal but rather part of established corporate behaviour.
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The explanations offered by firms are varied yet closely related, as some organisations keep advertisements online to project an image of growth to investors, clients, or their own staff, while others use them as a way to collect résumés data than responding to current needs. In some cases managers describe postings as an internal signal designed to suggest expansion or to meet recruitment metrics even when no budget exists to bring in new employees.
OECD data show that while employment and participation rates reached record highs in the first quarter of 2025, employment growth has slowed compared to the previous year, and indicators point to possible softening in labour market conditions. This picture of slower workforce expansion and reduced mobility may explain why job postings linger even when hiring is stalled, reinforcing the trend of ads that do not convert into new roles. Supporting that interpretation, the OECD highlights a long-term decline in job reallocation, once as high as 29 percent in 1990, now closer to 23 percent, indicating that fewer vacancies are triggering real job transitions, which may in turn create space for ghost job listings to persist unnoticed.
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Job seekers, particularly those entering the workforce, face heightened frustration as many applications yield no response, a phenomenon recounted in social media posts such as one by a 28-year-old graduate in Australia who shared having sent hundreds of tailored applications only to discover that many were never legitimate vacancies. Career professionals now advise applicants to be alert to signs such as postings that stay open for long periods without updates, listings appearing solely on third-party job boards rather than a company’s official career page, or repetitive and vague descriptions across multiple locations, and emphasise that the most reliable way to verify a role remains direct communication with recruiters or hiring managers.
Ghost jobs serve as a signal of deeper structural issues in how the hiring market operates, highlighting that organisations may prioritise appearances over hiring, that platforms encourage high-volume posting rather than verifiable opportunities, and that the growing gulf of trust between employers and candidates weakens the system’s integrity. Recruiters warn that the cumulative effect of ghost job postings undermines corporate credibility and makes rebuilding faith in hiring processes increasingly difficult once it has been lost.
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