In the world of Ghostbusters, proton packs may catch ghosts, but what tools do job seekers have to determine whether an advertised opportunity actually exists?
Ghost jobs are especially prevalent right now, so you’ll need to stay resourceful.
America’s labor shortage
According to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Understanding America’s Labor ShortageAccording to the Labor Force Participation Rate Survey released in late June this year, the labor force participation rate remains well below pre-pandemic levels.
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About 1.7 million Americans are out of the labor force compared to February 2020. Overall, the labor force participation rate is 62.7%, down from 63.3% before the pandemic.
Compounding this is the mismatch between job openings and the number of workers: Currently, the most recent data shows that there are 8.5 million job openings in the United States, but only 6.5 million people are unemployed.
The report details several factors contributing to this labor shortage, including early retirement due to the pandemic and increased savings during this period allowing higher-income earners to take a career break or live on their household income alone.
Moreover, when you consider that immigration to the United States is at its lowest level in decades and access to child care services is increasingly limited, the picture begins to become clearer.
But despite the millions of job listings online, many job seekers are well aware that the vast majority of these jobs don’t actually exist.
In theory, job ads are for positions that are currently open and you could apply and be hired, but too many applicants never hear from recruiters, leading them to suspect that these positions never existed in the first place.
Hiring practices revealed
These hunchbacks are backed up by a report from Clarifai Capital. Survey of 1,000 hiring managers When surveyed in October 2023, we found that 68% of employers had job ads up for more than 30 days, and 40% had jobs up for two to three months.
While these figures may seem high at first glance, it is important to note that the hiring process, especially for specialist or senior positions, can take a significant amount of time.
Nearly 50% of surveyed recruiters admitted to creating jobs to ensure they have a ready talent pool when it comes time to actually hire. Experienced job seekers know that the longer a job posting remains online, the greater the chance that the position will become a ghost job.
Other reasons recruiters acknowledge for posting ghost jobs include creating the impression that their company is growing and reassuring overworked employees that they’re looking for ways to help them. Another group said they leave job ads open in the hope that the perfect candidate will eventually apply.
The latter is likely to apply to technology roles such as AI, cloud and cybersecurity, which suffer from serious skills shortages.
Joe Mercurio, project manager at Clarify Capital, sees us from a hiring manager’s perspective.
“There are a variety of reasons why employers post ‘ghost jobs.’ Nearly half of companies have open job ads because they’re always accepting new talent, but 43% of companies aren’t actively trying to fill positions because they want to keep employees motivated or give the impression that the company is growing. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that many companies aren’t actively trying to fill the positions they currently have posted.”
How to spot a ghost job
Thankfully, Mercurio shares some advice on how to spot a ghost job.
“People who want to avoid applying to ‘ghost jobs’ should carefully look at when the job was first posted. Despite 96% of employers claiming they are actively working to fill open positions quickly, 40% of employers expect currently posted jobs to go unfilled for two to three months. In fact, one in ten managers report that jobs have been posted for more than six months.
“This happens for a variety of reasons, but checking when a job was posted can prevent job seekers from applying to ‘ghost jobs’ — a job posted 48 hours ago is likely to be actively hiring than one posted three months ago.”
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However, job ads often do not state the posting date. If you are viewing the job ad on a desktop or laptop, right-click and select[要素の検査]A handy way to view the source code of a website is to select[ソース]Click the tab and search for the word “Published.” Sometimes, but not always, the publication date will be listed here.
Additionally, you can also check the organization’s social media to see if they have any jobs posted there as well.
Other red flags to look out for include unclear job descriptions that could apply to a broad skill pool and job postings with no closing date.
Ready to start your job search? Visit The Hill Job Board to see open positions
