Have you gone on a job hunt recently and had the sneaking suspicion some of the job listings were fake? Or maybe you’ve seen a job listed for so long you wonder if the employer has any actual intention of filling that position. Either way, you were probably right.
Data from a hiring platform called Greenhouse says 18 to 22 percent of job listings are fake or merely there for show. How appropriately dystopian for this day and age!
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Of course, this phenomenon has a catchy name you can toss around when complaining about it online. They’re called “ghost jobs” and are why you sent out dozens if not hundreds of applications and only heard back from a handful at most. The Wall Street Journal, using Greenhouse as a source, found that one in five jobs advertised online is a ghost job.
The problem was especially prevalent in a few specific industries: 38 percent of construction industry job listings were fake, along with 34 percent of jobs in art-related industries. In third place were jobs in the legal field, where 29 percent of listings were ghost jobs.
If you’re wondering why, prepare yourself for some deeply unsatisfying answers that will leave you wondering if maybe you should stop looking for a job and instead take up a spiritually fulfilling career as a hermit who lives in a shack in the woods.
It boils down to this: some companies aren’t actively looking for someone to fill a position. Posting a ghost job allows the company to say it’s always accepting applications, just in case some mythical perfect candidate comes along.
The next reason is one of those symptoms of capitalism that makes you wonder if all of this is worth it. Some companies want to be seen as constantly growing, because in a hyper-capitalist system, the line must always be going up, and growth must be infinite, even when that’s impossible.
Rather than admit that infinite growth isn’t a realistic goal, companies settle for projecting the illusion of infinite growth. A job listing implies that the company is doing well enough that it can bring on more talent when that is simply not the case. That job listing is published to make the insecure leaders of that company look more successful than they are, all while filling you with a false sense of hope.
Back in June 2024, a ResumeBuilder.com survey of hiring managers dug up another reason that will also infuriate you: companies will post fake jobs as a constant reminder to their employees that they are replaceable. We’re family here. Except when we’re not.
