A ghost job is a vacancy advertised by an employer with no genuine intention of hiring. Some companies use adverts to collect CVs for future vacancies, assess the availability of talent or give the impression that they are expanding. Others simply fail to remove adverts after filling a position.
It's hardly a new phenomenon. So why is it attracting so much attention now?
Research by StandOut CV, which examined more than 91,300 UK job listings, found that 34.4% of adverts across 20 popular occupations could be classified as ghost jobs.
Veterinary nurse vacancies topped the list at 59.1%, followed by software engineering roles at 46.5%.
Those figures make uncomfortable reading for anyone spending time tailoring applications and waiting for responses. However, there is an important detail in the research methodology. StandOut CV used adverts carrying a '30+ days ago' label as an indicator of a potential ghost job.
An advert being online for more than a month doesn't necessarily mean the employer has no intention of recruiting. Senior appointments, specialist positions and lengthy recruitment processes can all take time.
Gi Group was highlighting the issue back in December 2024 in its article, Ghost Jobs and Vampire Tactics. It reported that up to 40% of UK companies had posted phantom job adverts, with some using them to build candidate databases or create the impression of business growth.
The difference now is the level of attention being given to the issue. With competition for jobs remaining a concern for many candidates, frustration with adverts that lead nowhere is becoming harder to ignore. Social media has also given jobseekers a platform to share their experiences and question whether vacancies are genuine.
There is another side to this discussion. Counting job adverts is not the same as counting genuine vacancies, and the figures need some context.
The same position can appear on an employer's website, a recruitment agency's site and several job boards. Job aggregators then scrape and republish those listings, potentially creating multiple adverts for a single vacancy.
Human error also plays a part. Jobs can be uploaded twice, contain incorrect details or remain online after someone has been appointed. None of these necessarily means an employer deliberately advertised a fictitious position.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recognises the scale of the duplication problem. Its research into online job advertising explains how it uses data matching to identify duplicate adverts. On average, it found around two duplicate adverts for every unique new listing in its dataset.
This is an important distinction when interpreting vacancy statistics. StandOut CV's research offers an interesting indication of how many adverts may be inactive, but its findings should not be taken as proof that one in three UK vacancies is deliberately fake.
Employers should remove filled vacancies promptly and be clear about whether they are actively recruiting. Recruitment agencies and job boards also have a responsibility to keep their listings accurate and up to date.
For candidates, checking the original advert, visiting the employer's careers page and confirming that applications are still being accepted can help avoid wasted time.
The inclusion of ghost jobs on the Collins shortlist may be new, but the practice certainly isn't. Perhaps the real significance is that jobseekers are becoming less willing to accept poor recruitment experiences as part of the process.
A job advert should represent a genuine opportunity. That really shouldn't be too much to ask.
