Ghost jobs haunt job seekers amid America's labor shortage

Proton packs may lasso ghosts in the Ghostbusters universe, but what tools do job seekers have when determining if an advertised opportunity actually exists?

You need your wits about you, as ghost jobs are particularly prevalent at the moment.

America’s labor shortage

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, ‘Understanding America’s Labor Shortage’, published in late June of this year, workforce participation remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

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Some 1.7 million of Americans are missing from the workforce, compared to February 2020. Overall, the labor force participation rate is 62.7 percent, down from 63.3 percent pre-pandemic.

Compounding this is the current mismatch between job openings and available workers. Right now, the latest data shows that there are 8.5 million job openings in the U.S., but only 6.5 million unemployed workers.

The report details a number of factors contributing to this shortage, including: pandemic-induced early retirement, increased savings from this period allowing higher-income individuals to take a career break or to live off one income in a household.

Additionally, when you factor in that migration to the U.S. is at its lowest level in decades, plus access to childcare is increasingly limited, the picture starts to become clearer.

Yet, despite the millions of job openings being cited online, many job seekers know all too well that a large percentage of these jobs do not actually exist.

In theory, a job advertisement is for a current, open role that you can apply to and be hired for, but too many applicants find they are being ghosted by hiring managers, leading to suspicions that these jobs never existed in the first place.

Hiring practices revealed

These hunches are supported by a Clarify Capital report that surveyed 1,000 hiring managers in October of 2023, and discovered that 68 percent of employers had job postings active for more than 30 days, and 40 percent had jobs live for two to three months.

While these figures might seem high at first glance, it's important to note that hiring processes, especially for specialized or senior roles, can take considerable time.

Some 50 percent of hiring managers surveyed admitted they created job openings to keep a talent pool at the ready for when they are actually hiring. Seasoned job seekers know the longer a job remains posted, the higher the chances of that position being a ghost job.

Other reasons hiring managers admit to posting ghost jobs include: to give the impression that the company was growing, to assure their overworked staff that they were seeking ways to help them, while another group said they left listings open, hoping their perfect candidate would eventually apply.

The latter can be the case for tech roles with severe skills shortages like AI, cloud and cybersecurity.

Joe Mercurio, project manager at Clarify Capital, puts us in hiring managers’ shoes.

“Employers post ‘ghost jobs’ for a variety of reasons. Around half of companies keep job postings open because they are always open to new people, but 43 percent aren't actively trying to fill positions because they want to keep employees motivated or they want to give off the impression that the company is growing. Whatever the reason, it definitely looks like many companies are not actively trying to fill the positions they have posted right now.”

How to spot ghost jobs

Helpfully, Mercurio goes on to share advice on how to spot ghost jobs.

“Anyone looking to avoid applying for ‘ghost jobs' should pay close attention to when they were first posted. Despite 96 percent of employers claiming they're actively trying to fill an open role quickly, 40 percent of employers don't expect to fill their active job posts for two to three months. In fact, one in 10 managers reports having job openings posted for over six months.

“This can happen for many different reasons, but checking to see when a job was posted could help prevent job seekers from applying for ‘ghost jobs’. A job that was posted 48 hours ago is more likely to be actively hiring than a job that was posted three months ago.”

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However, often job postings don’t list when they were posted. One neat trick is if you view a job listing on a desktop or laptop you can right click and choose Inspect Element from the drop down menu, to reveal the website’s source code. From here, click on the Source tab and search for the word “publish”. Not always, but sometimes the publish date is listed here.

Additionally, you can check the organization’s social media to see if the job was posted there too.

Other red flags to watch out for are uncertain job descriptions that could apply to a wide skill pool, and listings without a closing date.

Ready to start your job search? Visit The Hill Job Board to see what’s on offer