Not every unfilled opening is suspicious — plenty were posted late in the month or could have still been working through candidates. But the gap raises an uncomfortable question about how common “ghost jobs” remain — even as lawmakers work to weed them out.
Ghost jobs, where companies post open positions on job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed without the intention of actually filling them right away, have been a growing headache for job seekers.
Some bills, like New York’s S8877 would fine employers $2,500 for failing to disclose when they expect to fill a role, rising to $5,000 if the listing isn’t corrected within 30 days. But no bills have yet been signed into law.
How prevalent are ghost jobs?
In short, ghost jobs are very common and have been for a while.
Forty percent of companies surveyed by career site resume builder in 2024 said that they posted a fake job listing that year. Many times, hiring managers were behind them and argued they were beneficial for business. Those same managers said posting fake jobs is “morally acceptable.”
Ghost jobs can help companies collect resumes and even hire a candidate that is too good to pass up. However, critics argue that it benefits companies by portraying a false sense of growth and calm to investors and current employees and could even lead jobseekers to lose trust in a company.
The Wall Street Journal also pointed to recent Greenhouse data which found, after analyzing its clients job postings, that 19% of jobs advertised in the second quarter of 2026 showed no meaningful hiring activity after receiving applications. That includes reviewing job-test submissions or scheduling interviews.
That doesn’t mean that those jobs were inherently ghost jobs, but it does indicate how often a job search can remain stagnant. Sometimes, this is for reasons out of a recruiter or hiring manager’s control. For instance, budgets may have changed at the eleventh hour, or the company may be reviewing internal candidates.
The impact of ghost jobs
In some ways, ghost jobs are so prevalent because of how impersonal the online job-hunting process is today. It’s a familiar one for anyone who has spent time looking for work in the past couple of years.
