Ghost jobs: what they are and what you can actually check

A ghost job is an online posting for a job that doesn't exist, or that the employer has no plan to fill soon. Nobody measures this officially. The best-known estimate, from the hiring software company Greenhouse, puts it at 18 to 22% of the jobs posted on its platform in a quarter, without a published method, so treat it as a rough guide.

A posting's date and status can show how old a listing is and whether it is still listed. They can't show what the employer intends. No tool can tell you whether a job is a ghost job, including Cursu's free Job Age Checker.

What is a ghost job?

The term has no legal definition. The Congressional Research Service describes ghost job postings as "online job postings for positions that do not exist," or positions an employer is "not planning to fill immediately." Indeed uses nearly the same wording. Greenhouse uses a shorter test: positions "advertised with no intent to hire."

All three definitions turn on the employer's plans. Those plans are not visible from outside the company.

Some postings are not deliberate. The CRS notes that changed circumstances can alter an employer's intent to hire, and that job boards can copy postings from other websites automatically. A role can be real when it is posted and cancelled a month later. To the person applying, the listing looks the same either way.

How common are ghost jobs?

Here is what each published source says, and how it was counted.

  • 21% of interview reviews (Ng, 2024). Hunter Ng's preprint, submitted to arXiv on 29 October 2024, classified about 269,000 Glassdoor interview reviews and found that 21% described signs of a ghost job. A simpler keyword method on the same reviews found 1.6%. The abstract summarises this as "up to 21% of job ads may be ghost jobs", but the paper counts candidate reports, not postings. It is a preprint, not a peer-reviewed paper.
  • 18 to 22% of postings in a quarter (Greenhouse, December 2024). Greenhouse, which sells hiring software, reports that "In any given quarter, 18–22% of the jobs posted on the Greenhouse platform are classified as ghost jobs." Its article does not describe how postings are classified. The figure covers postings on its own platform only.
  • Hires per posting fell (Revelio Labs). Revelio Labs reports that "the ratio of hires per job posting fell from 0.75 in 2018 to below 0.5 in 2023." That is a ratio, not a count of fake postings. Revelio itself reads it as "only every other job posting results in an actual hire". That still does not mean half of postings are fake: a real role can end without a hire, and one posting can sit open across several hiring rounds.
  • No official count exists. The CRS states: "There are no official statistics on the magnitude of ghost jobs." The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes monthly totals of job openings and hires across the economy. Those are not counts of postings, so they cannot show how many postings are fake.
  • Candidate suspicion (Greenhouse survey, 2024). Greenhouse surveyed 2,500 workers in the US, UK and Germany. It reports that "Three in five candidates say they suspect they've encountered a ghost job." That measures what people believe. It is not a count of postings.
  • Indeed's position. Indeed says that "a large majority of job postings on Indeed show ongoing employer engagement." It gives no figure for the rest.

These numbers are directional. They differ because they measure different things: what candidates report in reviews, a share of one platform's postings, a ratio of hires to postings, or what candidates suspect. Anyone who gives you one exact percentage has picked a definition for you.

Why do companies post jobs they don't plan to fill?

The CRS lists several reasons an employer might do this. An employer may:

  • collect resumes now for a hire later,
  • appear to be growing, either to attract investors or to signal to existing staff that they are replaceable or that their workload may soon be shared,
  • show it has recruited a diverse pool of applicants when it already plans to hire an internal candidate, or
  • look for an exceptional person without a current opening.

Each reason describes what an employer might do. None of them shows that a particular posting is fake, and a posting that matches one of them may still be a real role.

What can you check on a posting?

None of these checks proves what an employer intends. Each one gives you a fact about the posting, and you can weigh the facts together.

The original posting date. Look for the date the job was first published. Google's structured-data guidance defines the JobPosting date as "The original date that employer posted the job in ISO 8601 format." Job boards often show a newer date after a listing is edited or refreshed, so a job that is weeks old can appear to have been posted two days ago. For the steps to find the original date, read how to tell when a job was actually posted.

Whether it was last updated. Some hiring systems keep a separate updated date. Greenhouse's Job Board API returns both a first_published date and an updated_at date for each job. An updated date tells you the posting was edited. It does not tell you the job is still open.

Whether it is still listed. Open the apply link from the company's own careers page. If the page says the job can't be found, or sends you to a list of jobs or to the company's home page, the job has most likely closed. Check the company name in the address first. On several hiring systems, a wrong company name returns the same not-found page as a closed job. The steps are in how to tell if a job posting is still open.

Repost patterns. A repost can hide how old a job is. LinkedIn says that reposting a closed job "will create a new job post." A repost on a board can restart the date that board shows. If the same title keeps returning with a fresh date, look up the original date on the company's own page. A repeated posting is a reason to look closer. It is not proof of anything.

The company's own careers page. Search the company's careers page for the title. A role that appears on a job board but not on the company's page deserves a second look, because a board's copy can outlast the company's own listing. A role missing from the company's own page is not proof that the job is closed, either. Check both before you decide.

What can no tool tell you?

No date, status or checker can tell you why a job is posted. Three limits matter most.

  1. Intent. Whether an employer plans to hire is a question about the employer's plans. A date can't answer it. An old posting can be a real role that is hard to fill, and a new posting can be a role nobody plans to fill.
  2. Closing dates. Most postings don't say when they end. Some hiring systems set an expiry date automatically, which is the software's rule rather than the employer's. A missing expiry date does not mean the job will stay open.
  3. The history behind a repost. A repost usually resets the date a board shows. Without the company's own record, a date can't show what happened before the repost.

Cursu's Job Age Checker reads a posting's first-published date and its status from the hiring system where it can. It does not read intent. It does not read LinkedIn or Indeed links, so paste the company's own apply link. When it can't find a date, it says so and does not guess.

What should you do about it?

  1. Don't drop a job on age alone. An old posting can still be real, and a new one can still be dead.
  2. Open the company's own apply link and check whether the job is still listed.
  3. Check the original date when the board's date looks too fresh to be true.
  4. Spend your effort on jobs you can verify. Tailoring a resume for a listing that has closed is effort you won't get back.
  5. Write down the date you checked. A status is a snapshot. A job can close the day after you look.

Check a job link

FAQ

What is a ghost job?

A ghost job is an online posting for a job that doesn't exist, or that the employer doesn't plan to fill soon. The Congressional Research Service and Indeed both describe it this way. The definition depends on the employer's intent, which you can't see from outside the company.

How many jobs are fake?

No official figure exists. The best-known estimate is Greenhouse's: 18 to 22% of the jobs posted on its own platform in a quarter, with no published method. A 2024 preprint found that 21% of Glassdoor interview reviews described signs of a ghost job, but that counts candidate reports, not postings. No single number answers the question.

Why would a company post a job it isn't hiring for?

The CRS lists a few reasons: to collect resumes for later, to look like a growing company, to show a diverse pool of applicants when an internal candidate is already chosen, and to find an exceptional person before a role opens. Some postings are not deliberate. Plans change after a job goes up.

Can a tool tell me if a job is a ghost job?

No. A tool can show a posting's dates and whether it is still listed. Those facts don't show what the employer intends. Cursu's free Job Age Checker shows the posting date and status only.

Some companies have openings on LinkedIn all year. Do they even hire?

Sometimes. A posting that has been up for months can be a role the employer keeps open to collect resumes, or a listing that stayed up after plans changed. The posting's age alone doesn't say which. Check the company's own careers page and the original posting date.

Why does a job show "posted 2 days ago" when I can see it's older?

Job boards can show a newer date after a posting is edited or reposted. The company's hiring system usually keeps the first-published date. LinkedIn's help center says that reposting a closed job "will create a new job post." Paste the company's apply link into Cursu's Job Age Checker to see the original date.

Is the company behind a posting a scam?

A posting's dates can't tell you whether a company is legitimate. The Job Age Checker reads a posting's dates and status. It does not check the company. If a company's contact details or terms look wrong, look up its own website and careers page before you share personal information.

Sources

Quotes checked on 2026-10-09. Dates are the publisher's own.