Companies keep ghost jobs active for several reasons:

To build candidate pipelines for roles that might open later

To signal growth during hiring freezes

To leave approved positions stuck in limbo due to budget cuts

To satisfy internal posting requirements or HR quotas

So in other words companies are ghouls willing to turn what is already a grueling process nowadays into an even more gruelling one simply for the sake of gaining more metrics?

Any org found guilty of posting a ghost role must pay one year salary to every applicant. All job postings must include the salary. If the salary is not posted, the fine will be the highest paid employee's compensation.

Everyone who okayed the ghost role being posted is barred from any involvement in hiring processes for life.

That's my fantasy, anyway.

I always fucking knew that the job market was full of shit, now I know it's more full of shit than I thought.

Nothing quite crushes the soul like customizing a resume and cover letter for a job at a company, getting turned down via form letter, then see that same job listing posted a week or two later.

Except having every company in town do it to you.

For over two years.

the statistic was around like what, of 100 applications, a quarter will likely reject you, and like 5% will actually respond back with an interview to some extent. the rest will ghost you.

Because job listings are something investors look for.

From the other side, hiring competent people has gotten much harder with AI in the hands of people. Its making them dumb.

A coworker and I were interviewing someone for a technical role over a video meeting that we did NOT get through our network. His answers were strangely generic. We'd ask him a direct question about a technology or a software tool and the answer would come back like a sales brochure. I message my co-worker on the side about this strangeness, and he said "We're not hiring this guy. Watch his eyes. Ever time you ask a question, he's reading off the bottom of his screen." My coworker was right. I saw it immediately after he pointed it out. We were only 4 minutes into the interview and we already knew we weren't hiring this guy. I learned later about LLMs that you can run while being interviewed that will answer questions your in real time.

Another one happened within 48 hours of that interview. Someone that had been hired was on a team with me. An error came up in a software tool that we are all supposed to be experts on. I had a pretty good idea what the issue was from the error message text. This other team member posted into our chat what ChatGPT had thought of the error. In the first sentence of the ChatGPT message I immediately could tell that it was the wrong path. It referenced different methods our tool doesn't even use.

To translate it with an analogy, assume we're baking a cake and it came out too sour. The ChatGPT message said essentially "this happens when you put too much lemon juice in. Bake the cake and use less lemon juice next time" Sure, that would be a reasonably decent answer....except our cake had no lemon juice in it. So obviously any suggestions to fix our situation with altering the amount of lemon juice is completely wrong. This team member, presented this message and said "I think we should follow this instruction". I was completely confused because he's supposed to be an expert on our tool like I am, and he didn't even pause to consider what ChatGPT said before he accepted it as fact. It would be one thing to plug the error message into ChatGPT to see what it said, but to then take that output and recommend following it without any critical thinking was insane to me.

AI can be a useful tool, but it can't be a complete substitute for thinking on your own as people are using it as today. AI is making people stupid.

This is why I generally hire from inside my network or from referrals of those I know. Its so hard to find a qualified worker among all the other unqualified workers all applying at the same time. I know there are great workers not in my network, I just have no way to find them with the time and resources I have available to me.

I suspect this is going on in some Oklahoma school districts - I believe that some districts are actively trying to hire uncertified candidates. There is a drastic shortage, but many districts are surprisingly “choosy” - almost intentionally seeking the ability to claim they couldn’t find someone so they can “emergency certify” someone who won’t question orders/join unions.

There’s just something off, and the state is corrupt as all hell.

its been this way since 2015ish. notice only 1 employer was like half all listing in my field in my area, and they never ever respond at all, looking at thier job listings, yup. it was a famous UC in my area,hint hint. they have been known to outsource certain positions. and i think they put out fake listing through thier own page, and other sites to make it look like they are hiring alot. they made Kaiser look like a saint around wage/hiring.

and the other half just as many ghost listing, or we looked for some else,or some other excuse. they almost never go for "FOB" graduates. hence why my field has a somewhat moderate unemployment rate, minus health industry hirings.

This is why it's more important to network and have a good work reputation. 70% of job hires is through networking. It makes sense because from employer's perspective, there is a higher chance that the person recommended is reliable than the candidate who hasn't been heard of before. It corroborates my own experience as a jobseeker before. A couple of the best jobs I have had was through connections.

"June 2025 BLS data reveals dramatic differences in the percentage of ghost jobs across industries: Government roles: 60% Education and health services: 50% Information: 48% Finance: 44% Leisure and hospitality: 2% Construction: -44% (more hires than openings)"

leisure, hospitality, and construction . You'll find a job as long as you've got a pulse. -That checks out.

Hey now, there's no reason both things can't be true.

It's always a joy having two resumes. First, all my real qualifications. Second, good enough to be a janitor if need be.

Companies keep ghost jobs active for several reasons:

• To signal growth during hiring freezes
• To leave approved positions stuck in limbo due to budget cuts
• To satisfy internal posting requirements or HR quotas

To lie, got it.

My job hunting experience may be quite atypical then, as I've gotten about 50% of the jobs I've applied for. It's probably a lot easier since I work in the trades. I can just email a handful of local companies even if they're not actively hiring, and a few will probably call me back.

"These phantom job postings aren't just wasting your time. They're stalling your career while destroying your confidence."

The most ghastly AI phrase, gave up reading right there.