Are ghost jobs real?
Yes, though most are neglect rather than deception. Postings stay up after a role is filled, get reposted while a preferred candidate is already progressing, or sit open as a permanent pipeline. The practical tell is age, so check how long a posting has been live before spending time on it.
Why postings outlive the job
Deliberate fakery exists but is rarer than the internet suggests. Indifference explains most of it.
- Nobody closed it. The most common reason by far.
- The role is filled internally but the ad was never taken down.
- The company keeps an evergreen posting for a role it hires continuously.
- A reorganisation paused hiring and the posting stayed up.
- Aggregators keep showing a listing after the company has removed it.
How to spot one
- Check the date on the company's own careers page, not the aggregator, which often shows a refreshed date.
- Be wary of anything live for several months in a fast-moving field.
- Watch for the same role reposted repeatedly with identical text.
- Prefer postings you can verify on the employer's applicant tracking system.
What to do about it
Apply anyway if the match is strong and the application is cheap, because the cost of being wrong is small. Do not build hope around a posting you cannot date.
The deeper fix is sourcing from company career pages rather than aggregators, where stale listings persist longest.
How we do it
We read postings from company applicant tracking systems and record when each one first appeared and when it stopped appearing, so age is visible rather than guessed at.
Updated 2026-09-06