More than 80% of recruiters admit to posting ‘ghost jobs’ to juice their talent pool and business reputation

Hop onto social media, and you’re bound to hear job-hunting horror stories of people applying to hundreds of roles without a peep from recruiters. As it turns out, the radio silence may not be their fault.

About 81% of recruiters say that their employer posts “ghost jobs,” or positions that either don’t exist or are already filled, according to a new report from MyPerfectResume, a resume building platform. Jasmine Escalera, a career expert for MyPerfectResume, says this figure is staggering, and discouraging for candidates looking to land a new role.

“We often hear job-seekers saying, ‘I’m tired, I’m depressed, I’m desperate,’ using these very harsh words when it comes to the job market,” she says. “This is one of the reasons why they are losing faith in organizations and companies.”

Not only are recruiters fessing up to the tactic, they’re also admitting to how common the practice is. Around 17% say up to three quarters of their job announcements aren’t genuine, while 21.5% say ghost jobs account for half of all positions they post, 36% say a quarter of their postings are fake or already filled, and 18% of headhunters report that less than one tenth of their work advertisements aren’t real.  

It may seem counterproductive for recruiters to advertise ghost jobs, theoretically wasting their own time as well as that of applicants—but there are incentives for doing so. About 38% say they post fake positions to maintain a presence on job boards when they aren’t hiring, 36% do so to assess the effectiveness of their job descriptions, 26% want to build a talent pool for the future, 26% hope gain insight into the job market and competitors, and 25% want to assess how difficult it would be to replace certain employees, according to the report. Escalera points out that a big reason for posting these jobs is recruiters wanting to improve their business’ image—nearly a quarter also say that fake jobs help their companies look as if they aren’t experiencing a hiring freeze, and one fifth say they post ghost jobs to improve the reputation of their company.

“Companies are trying to project ‘We’re okay, we’re still maintaining hiring, that we’re still moving in a growth-oriented trend. In this market, our organization is doing well.’ That ties into why these fake jobs might be appearing more from a comforting perspective,” she says. “It really is about the business, the bottom line, showing growth, showing trends, and how that can connect to maintaining profit.”

Ghost jobs have become so ubiquitous that Escalera says that rather than hope for a cultural change, job applicants should adapt to the new normal. She recommends candidates equip themselves to recognize fake postings and avoid applying to those positions. “If there’s something that seems irregular about the posting, for example the responsibilities and the title don’t match or the pay range is incredibly astronomically broad, this could be a fake job posting. You want to also scrutinize job postings from the perspective of: Does the job posting even really make sense?”

Escalera adds that job platforms like Glassdoor, where employees can post reviews about employers anonymously, have equipped employees to speak up when they think a company is being deceitful without threat of repercussion. She thinks the sites should also be leveraged to warn others of ghost postings. 

“The empowered job seeker isn’t just empowering themselves through the use of technology to boost their brand,” she says. “The empowered job seeker is also putting out information that is supporting other job seekers in a very powerful way. And that includes reviewing companies and talking about what is working and what’s not working with certain companies.”

Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com

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