Ghost Job Postings

Note: This article is intended for information purposes only. Because state and municipal laws vary greatly, as do the circumstances of individual cases, readers are advised to contact an attorney for specific legal advice. Views and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher and editors of WholeFoods Magazine.

This is the first time that I have publicly told this story. When I was still a very junior associate attorney, with just two or three years of legal experience under my belt, I was casting around for a new job and sent resumes out to several different law firms and corporate legal departments. One of those was to the legal department of a movie studio whose name is prominent enough you would immediately recognize it. I was granted an interview, showed up on time, and thought I had presented myself well to the interviewer, especially with my top-10 law-school background, my having been the managing editor for a major law review, and my working for a prominent Philadelphia law firm. But no, the interviewer candidly said, at the end of the interview, they would only be hiring a Jewish lawyer. Since I wasn’t Jewish that left me out of consideration. I thanked the interviewer for having been honest with me (after all, the interviewer could have made up any excuse and easily palmed that off on me). To this very day, I deeply appreciate that honesty. Was I resentful? Not one bit. Was I disappointed? Absolutely.

That was the end of my attempt to get into the legal branch of the film industry and is probably the primary reason that I became a food-and-drug lawyer instead and now have a legal column with WholeFoods Magazine instead of Variety. That interviewer did me a huge favor. Still, it was a “ghost” job posting that I responded to, at least for non-Jewish attorneys.

The Problem

We live in an age of deception. From deep fake videos on the internet to governments lying to their citizens about war and peace, to pharmaceutical companies rigging clinical and other trials to make their drugs look better, to medical journals routinely publishing corrupted studies, the deception is everywhere and it is constant and unrelenting. I am sorry to say that it also extends to even something as mundane as job listings, and has for some time, as my own experience 40 years ago has shown.

In fact, it seems that in a practice called “ghost posting” too many businesses are posting fake job openings online these days. In effect, they are advertising positions that they have no intention of filling. Surprisingly, according to two recent surveys, ghost posts make up 30-43% of online job openings (1). This practice has only grown as recruiting has shifted from paper to digital postings.

The reasons for these ghost posts range from companies wanting to be seen as a successful, growing company to wanting to keep their overworked employees motivated. More innocently, some businesses simply want to maintain a database on possible future candidates so that if they should ever need to hire someone, they will already have that person at the ready.

To my mind, ghost posts actually hurt those businesses genuinely trying to recruit new talent. Job applicants waste their time and suffer burnout as they chase after jobs that don’t even exist, while the true job openings are lost amidst the sea of listings.

One-third of the hiring managers surveyed by Clarify Capital admitted that they ghost post but claimed that they were creating a source of pre-qualified candidates for any job positions that might be available in the future. However, as one recruiter said, “Not only do these [ghost posts] clutter job boards and make it more difficult for candidates to find and apply to genuine job openings, they also cause frustration and mistrust among candidates” (2). So, ghost posts may ultimately be self-defeating.

Are They Legal?

Be aware, too, that even though ghost job posts are generally not illegal, posting ghost jobs could still pose significant legal risks to the poster. In some States or cities, posting fake job listings could be considered misleading or fraudulent and could expose the company to legal action. For example, in New Jersey, while there is no direct prohibition against ghost posts, “New Jersey recognizes common law claims of wrongful discharge, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, contractual interference, defamation, invasion of privacy, promissory estoppel, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation” (3).

So, if a job applicant sees a ghost post and tries for that employment position only to later find out that the position was never real, the applicant could have legal grounds to file a complaint with labor authorities or a lawsuit for fraud and misrepresentation.

Also, those companies that use ghost job postings to collect personal data from candidates must comply with data-protection laws. In Europe, that would necessarily include complying with the strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the breach of which can lead to severe penalties and damage to the poster’s reputation.

Regardless of ghost posts’ legality, in my opinion, they are unethical and shouldn’t be used. For those who believe in karma, the blowback from posting such fake posts could greatly outweigh their value.

How to Spot Ghost Posts

Ghost job postings typically sport some or many of the following characteristics:

Old Job Listings. Perhaps the first thing to look for is the age of the job posting. Typically, it takes a company about 44 days to fill a position (4). If it has been posted for several months – especially without any updates or other changes – then the odds increase that it is a fake job listing.
No deadlines or timelines. If there are no deadlines for applying or interview schedules listed, then the job posting could be for an employment position that the company has no intention of filling in the near future.
Generic job details. Pay attention as to whether the job description truly gives details about the position. If it is vague and lacks specificity about what work duties the job entails, then it could be a ghost post.
Generic email addresses. If the job posting only has a generic email address to apply to (i.e., not a hiring manager’s email address or telephone number), or even no contact information whatsoever, then once again the odds are good that it may be a ghost job.
Promo language. Does the job posting largely focus on promoting the company’s image or record of growth? Is there little mention of the actual job and its duties? Then, the job listing could simply be a promotional piece for the company’s image rather than an actual job post.

Be proactive. Conduct due diligence on a company by researching it online to see whether it has suffered any setbacks that might have led to a hiring freeze or any other action that would negate the job listing that was posted. Also, don’t hesitate to call the company directly and speak with the hiring manager herself or himself about the position. If the contact information is not available on the company’s website, then it can often be found on its LinkedIn social-media page. The key takeaway here is to not take job listings at face value.

But There’s A Sinister Twist

Unfortunately, though, just when you might think that you have a handle on fake job listings, there is an even more sinister twist to ghost posts: a large network exists where the job postings are hidden from the average worker. It has been alleged that something like 80% of all job listings are now invisible to the typical American looking for work (5). This is the flip side of the ghost-post problem just discussed above. In other words, it is not a problem of the job listing itself being fraudulent but rather a problem of never getting to see the real job posts in the first place because the listings have been ghosted.

Instead, these job listings are often offered to “refugees” and not to American citizens or lawful residents. American workers may never even get the chance to see these ghosted listings. So, it’s not just a problem of Americans having to wade through an ocean of fake job listings, but in their searches, they are never even given the opportunity to see all of the real jobs posted.

You might ask how does this system work? According to one source, “It turns out that a network of federal grant recipient organizations have quietly seized control of nearly the entire job market in the U.S. ... and work to ensure that openings remain ‘hidden’ so that refugees can take them ahead of American citizens. How many job openings remain hidden? The internal estimates … put the number of hidden openings at 80% of all available jobs” (6).

Moreover, the source goes on to report that, “If an employer needs nurses, janitors, programmers, police or literally any kind of worker the network can provide them to employers at a lower rate of pay than what an American citizen would require due to not having access to the same welfare benefits [accorded to the refugees]. These globally sourced scab workers don't require health insurance and have all living expenses subsidized by federal programs. If the typical American had all their health, food, and housing costs covered they would also be able to work for a fraction of their existing wages” (7).

Regardless of whether or not this national network actually controls most such hidden job listings, American workers still appear to be excluded from consideration for many jobs thanks to federal programs that subsidize the hiring of foreign, “refugee” workers.

Conclusion

So, American workers are caught between the Scylla of numerous fake job listings and the Charybdis of being pre-excluded from a large segment of the job market by withheld job posts. It is no wonder then that the employment rate in the United States is so abysmal, and that American workers are struggling to find jobs. Since government statistics are so politicized and unreliable these days, we must turn to other experts to gauge true economic conditions. According to one more trustworthy analyst, “total employed persons in the United States increased by only 57,000 from July 2023 to July 2024—an increase of a mere 0.03 percent. Since September of last year, the number of employed persons has fallen by 284,000” (8). Clearly, the job market has not improved in 2024.

With the Gen Z workers expected to outnumber the full-time Boomer generation workers for the first time this year, some experts think that the Gen Z-ers will demand that employers be more open with them (9). Ghost posts might then greatly diminish. But just as job applicants will continue to lie on their resumes, I expect that employers will continue to lie on their job listings. When it comes to job listings, then, the caution Caveat emptor still applies.

References