The Job Market is Plagued by Ghost Jobs

Ghost jobs — positions employers have no intention of filling — are plaguing employment platforms and making job searches even harder. 

Why It Hurts: Despite job openings increasing per the Department of Labor, job seekers in several white-collar industries are sharing a different story — one where job searches stretch for months, prospective employers simply stop responding, and employment prospects are filled with disillusionment.

Behind the Openings: Getting ghosted by potential employers is breaking a lot of hearts, according to an analysis from hiring platform Greenhouse.

• The firm found that between 18% and 22% of job postings last year never got filled.
• 70% of companies using Greenhouse, which includes thousands of top companies, posted at least one ghost job.
• 15% of companies didn’t fill half of the job openings they posted.
• The worst offenders worked in industries like construction, the arts, food and beverage, and legal.

Closing Thoughts: Why do companies post ghost jobs? There are several reasons: they want to project they’re growing; they’re hoping the perfect candidate appears; they’re complying with federal law to post jobs even when they’ve pinpointed internal candidates; or they just forget to take them down after they’re filled. Whatever the reason, it’s a disaster for job seekers.

Platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and, yes, Greenhouse are now rolling out verification tools to weed out ghost jobs. But in today’s vast digital job market, there may be nothing that cuts through the noise more than a personal connection — that could have a profound effect on remote work.