Four in ten companies post job listings with no real intention of hiring anyone
Ghost jobs are open positions that companies post publicly while having no active plan to fill them. They sit on job boards for months, collecting applications from real people who spend real time applying, while the company either already filled the role internally, paused hiring, or simply never had budget approval to hire at all.
Who has this problem
Active job seekers
People who want to filter out ghost job listings before spending hours applying to a role that was never really open.
State labor regulators drafting disclosure legislation
Agencies modeling new rules (like NY's S8877) who need clear data on prevalence and employer behavior to write an enforceable law.
Recruiters and talent teams at honest employers
Hiring teams whose real openings get lumped in with ghost jobs and doubted.
Job boards and career sites
Platforms that would have to disclose hiring timeframes under New York's S8877.
Signal timeline
Unlisted tracks 619,116 live postings across 15 applicant-tracking systems, pulled directly from each employer's own careers site over a 31-day window, and finds 27.6% (162,238) had already been open more than 90 days, including 15.9% open past 180 days.
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