Ghost jobs: what millions of roles say about postings that were never going to hire you

The most common complaint we hear is not "the matches are wrong". It is "I applied and heard nothing". Part of that is how hiring works. A bigger part than anyone admits is that a share of postings were never going to answer anyone.

We scan millions of roles across thousands of careers pages and job boards every day, and we watch what happens to each one: when it appears, whether it changes, when it disappears. Here is what that shows, in general terms.

Four kinds of ghost

The talent pool. The posting reads like a job, but the text gives it away: "we are always looking for", "register your interest", "future opportunities", "we keep your CV on file". Some large employers run one of these for every department, permanently. Applying puts you in a database, not in a process.

The evergreen requisition. A real title, re-listed under a new reference number every few weeks for months. The company hires into it occasionally, maybe once a quarter, and the posting is a funnel that is always open. Consultancies and IT services firms do this most.

The clone. The same title live in dozens of cities at once. For a shop manager that is honest, one posting per shop. For an "enterprise architect" in forty cities it is one role, or none, with wide net.

The one nobody took down. Filled or cancelled weeks ago, still listed on a board that never re-checked. This is the quiet majority, and it is the one that wastes the most applications, because the posting looks completely normal.

What the pattern looks like

Across the roles people click Apply on, a meaningful share are closed within days of the click, and some were already gone when it happened. The clicks concentrate on a recognisable kind of employer: large outsourcing and staffing firms, and small companies whose two or three postings have been up for a couple of months with talent pool wording. Those are the ones people complain about.

Age is the single clearest signal. A role that has been listed for more than six weeks is far less likely to answer than one listed this week, in every sector we looked at. Some employers do keep real roles open for months, usually hard to fill senior ones, but as a rule the older the posting, the lower the odds.

How to check in two minutes

• Find it on the company's own careers page. Boards and aggregators keep roles up after they close. The careers page is the truth.
• Look at the date. Older than six weeks, lower your expectations. Older than three months, assume it is a pool unless it is a rare specialism.
• Search the title on the same careers page. If you see the same title with three reference numbers, it is an evergreen.
• Read for pool language. Future opportunities, talent community, register your interest, always hiring.
• Check the location list. One title in twenty places is a funnel.

What we do about it

Since this month, the Career Agent flags these patterns on its own. A role that reads like a talent pool, that the company has re-listed recently, that is the same title in many places, or that has been listed for a long time is ranked lower and carries one line on the card saying why. We don't hide it, because sometimes the odd one is real and you may want it anyway. We do hide roles we have confirmed are closed, by checking the source every day.

We also watch which companies produce dead applications over time, so the agent learns which names to be cautious about, the same way you would after two unanswered applications to the same firm.

The honest advice

Spend your best hours on roles posted this week, at companies whose careers page confirms them, and apply early. A good application to a fresh posting beats five polished ones to roles that were never going to reply.