Bad news for job hunters—lots of employers are likely wasting applicants’ time by posting listings for “ghost jobs” that don’t exist.
That’s according to recent surveys by job sites Resume Builder and MyPerfectResume, which separately found evidence that fake listings are rife. Resume Builder’s May 2024 survey of over 1,600 hiring managers found 40% of firms posted a fake job this year, while a MyPerfectResume poll of over 750 US recruiters found 81% admit their employer posts ads for jobs that will never be, or have already been, filled.
Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder, and MyPerfectResume Career Expert Jasmine Escalera both told IT Brew they were surprised the practice was so widespread.
Haller said the practice has long been common in the temporary staffing field, but, “what surprised [her] is how many corporate and HR organizations are starting to do this as well.”
“A lot of it has to do with appearance and to create an impression to affect either the outside world that they were growing and thriving,” she said. “Or internally—that they have people on the bench waiting in case they need to replace any employees.”
Alarmingly, Resume Builder’s data showed recruiters are convinced the practice works. Around two-thirds reported positive impacts from the fake listings on both revenue and morale, while 77% said the fake listings increased productivity. Seven in 10respondents also said the practice was definitely or probably morally acceptable, a sentiment that’s unlikely to be reflected on the other side of the table.
Escalera said fake listings are a chicken-or-egg question. She noted that the decade has been rife with layoffs at the same time job applicants have become increasingly vocal on social media about job-search gripes.
It’s possible “we’re just catching [the trend], or if it’s that it’s happening more now,” Escalera said.
While neither survey broke down the results by sector, SFGate recently reported on signs the trend is beginning to gain notice among applicants in the San Francisco Bay Area. The website noted a spreadsheet titled the “Ghost Jobs Red Flag List” has been circulating online, listing numerous tech firms.
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Recruiter and career coach John Lovig told SFGate the phenomenon is common in tech partially because of the frequent layoffs which have plagued the sector in recent years. Resume Builder’s survey also found top reasons for the fake listings included signaling openness to external talent (67%), maintaining the appearance of growth (66%), and misleading overworked workers into believing help is on the way (63%).
“Some of the reasons made legitimate sense as to why some companies might be doing this,” Escalera said, like actually keeping résumés on file. “Some were a little bit kind of, huh—maybe there’s another way to do it?”
According to the Observer, Resume Builder data showed 56% of tech employers posted fake jobs in the last year. It’s a problem years in the making: Data from Revelio Labs and Bloomberg has also shown the ratio of hires per job posting dropped from 0.75 in 2018 to 0.5 in 2023. Professional and technical services was the third-worst sector with a nearly 44% decline in the hiring ratio.
“If employees know that their HR departments are putting out things that aren’t true, I don’t think that bodes well for our culture in the long run,” Haller told IT Brew. While she noted some firms might be posting such ads to accumulate résumés for projected growth or to build a talent pool in case of layoffs, she also argued they could just say that in the posting.
“If they’re thinking it’s morally acceptable, well, we’re talking about fake news and fake information all the time,” Haller concluded. “That’s the only thing I can think of.”