With the sudden shift in economic conditions, employers are increasingly posting vacancies that were never meant to be filled.
Up until recently, we were experiencing a period of rapid growth and spending. During this period of plenty, interest rates were historically low, and money was plentiful. We also saw a huge investment interest in high growth sectors, such as tech, with unprecedented levels of funding up for grabs.
As our economies come to a sudden halt in response to government deflationary policies, the pressure amongst corporations to continue to show their growth has not ceased. Whether its VC pressure or competition for the remaining reserve of investment money – companies are taking drastic, and sometimes unethical, measures to show growth.
The recent spate of layoffs has been well documented in the news but hiring for certain key positions continues to signal business growth. This pressure means that companies are now posting for job openings without the intention of hiring anyone.
How do we know these postings are fake?
Through unscientific deduction, if a posting does not get filled past 30 days, the hiring manager is either extremely picky or not interested in hiring anyone. As per a 2022 report by Clarify Capital, who surveyed over 1,000 managers involved in the hiring process to understand the intent behind ghost jobs, they found that:
- 68% of managers had job postings active for more than 30 days
- 1 in 10 managers has had a job posting open for over 6 months
- 1 in 5 managers don’t plan to fill open job positions until next year
- 50% of managers keep job postings open because they’re “always open to new people”
What are some reasons these jobs get posted?
It is understandable that some vacancies get posted in error or duplicated due to the intensity of posting by recruitment teams. However, these do not account for all ghost postings.
In previous years, companies would post for openings in anticipation of employees quitting, such as during the period of the great resignation or in anticipation of completing another round of funding. A good HR team keeps a pool of candidates to cover their bases and fill in vacancies quickly when the need arises.
In the most devious scenarios, managers have admitted to posting these openings to keep existing employees in check. Here are the top reasons that managers gave for not filling in a position immediately:
The negative impact of ghost vacancies
To be fair, fake job postings are not a recent phenomenon, but their occurrence has intensified causing much frustration amongst those applying for new positions.
Another unfortunate and extremely dire consequence of ghost posting is that these vacancies get counted in labour statistics, making the economy seem better off than it may be. In large enough numbers, this could cause governments and central banks to implement the wrong measures to address economic concerns. As per CBS News, Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve may be influenced by the high number of job openings, which he called “very strong’ to make further interest rate hikes.
Further reading:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240315-ghost-jobs-digital-job-boards
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/job-openings-fake-listings-ads-federal-reserve-jolts/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-plum-job-listing-may-just-be-a-ghost-3aafc794
https://jobacle.com/blog/the-dirty-truth-why-employers-post-fake-jobs.html