Ghost job

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A fake job, ghost job, or phantom job is a job posting for a non-existent or already filled position. The employer may post fake job opening listings for many reasons, such as inflating statistics about their industries, protecting the company from discrimination lawsuits, fulfilling requirements by human-resources departments, identifying potentially promising recruits for future hiring, pacifying existing employees that the company is looking for extra help, or retaining desirable employees. [1] [2] [3] Many companies actually prefer to hire by word of mouth or internally in order to save time and cut cost. [2] They may also use this strategy to gather information regarding their competitors' wages. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] This type of false advertisement has occurred in many countries, including the United States. Fake advertisements have been discovered using the promise of remote work as "bait". [9] This is considered a rising trend [10] and it underscores the relative power of the employers in the job market. [2] These job ads may have catchy titles, vague descriptions, a lack of detail, or full reposts of previous job ads.

According to the career coaching service SamNova, a fake job listing can often be spotted as one that is either continuously open or repeatedly posted. [11]

A survey conducted by Clarify Capital has concluded that many companies and government entities have tricked job seekers with fake ads without the intent of hiring. [4]

In 2025 a Greenhouse study showed one in 5 job posting was either fake or never filled. [12] [13]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Bienasz, Gabrielle (September 20, 2022). "What Are 'Ghost Jobs' and Why Are They Everywhere Now?". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on July 26, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Weber, Lauren; Kwoh, Leslie (January 8, 2013). "Beware the Phantom Job Listing". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  3. ↑ Thapa, Anuz (August 22, 2024). "Ghost jobs: What the rise in fake job listings says about the current job market". CNBC.
  4. 1 2 Mercurio, Joe (September 1, 2022). "Survey: Job Seekers Beware of Ghost Jobs" . Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  5. ↑ Knight, Rebecca; Kaplan, Juliana. "That's not a real job opening: Some companies are posting 'ghost jobs' but don't actually plan to hire you — or anyone". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2023-07-05. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
  6. ↑ Berwick, Isabel; Smith, Sophia (October 12, 2022). "Beware of 'ghost job' listings". Financial Times. Archived from the original on November 25, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Breakingviews - Fake jobs hide cooler reality for US workforce". Reuters. April 4, 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-08-10– via www.reuters.com.
  8. ↑ Chen, Te-Ping (March 20, 2023). "Job Listings Abound, but Many Are Fake". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023– via www.wsj.com.
  9. ↑ Moore, Cortney (April 25, 2023). "Fake remote, hybrid jobs shared online to trick candidates". Fox Business . Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ Rogers, Taylor Nicole (June 4, 2022). "Are 'fake' job ads inflating America's employment data?". Financial Times. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ Kim, Soo (June 21, 2023). "Seven red flags to look out for on a job ad, according to business experts". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  12. ↑ https://gizmodo.com/1-in-5-online-job-postings-are-either-fake-or-never-filled-study-finds-2000549706
  13. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/ghost-jobs-2c0dcd4e


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