Ghost job postings on social and professional networks are growing at around 25% year on year, according to recruitment services experts. Companies that post these ads have no intention of filling up the positions—in other words, the listing exists but there is no vacancy to fill.
Job market watchers say such postings help companies maintain a ready pipeline of talent while also helping them assess their own internal talent pool. Ghost postings also help them gather insights on talent trends, assess skilled talent availability, and, in some cases, conduct internal parity checks or frame future hiring budgets.
Ghost postings have seen a sharp rise since last year, said Aditya Mishra, chief executive at staffing and recruitment services firm CIEL HR Services. “We are seeing that half of the roles that job seekers applied for are reposted within weeks. In many cases, interview processes progress only for the positions to be put ‘on hold’ or cancelled midway.”
A large number of companies that make such ghost postings are from sectors like construction, technology, legal services, food and hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare and retail. Many of these firms are small to midsize, said Karthikeyan Kesavan, director and head of business – permanent recruitment at Adecco, a workforce solutions provider.
Appraisal Season Strategy
These firms want to project growth, maintain a strong employer brand, or collect CVs to understand market trends, say experts. “Some are also driven by investor pressure or AI-led restructuring where hiring plans are frequently revised,” said Mishra.
“We are seeing an increasing trend of ghost job postings, up by 25-30% year-on-year,” said Kesavan. “They use this tactic to attract a larger candidate pool, though only about 20% of these vacancies actually materialise.”
ET spoke to executives at several companies who confirmed this trend while speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Such posts help us in image building. It makes the world think that we are growing faster than we are,” said a senior executive at a midsize engineering firm.
His company recently started posting ghost jobs on a professional network. There will be no hiring done for the listing and if there is a requirement in that role, it will be closed internally, the executive added.
Another senior executive of a multinational import-export firm said his firm usually puts up ghost jobs just before the appraisal season in summer to gauge the compensation at the industry level. “We felt that some employees were not paid as per the industry standards. When we assessed the market, it helped us in giving rational increments to our own people,” the executive said.
LinkedIn, the professional networking platform where companies often post job vacancies, said it uses advanced technology and expert teams to remove more than 99% of fake accounts and scams before they are reported. “Our policies are clear that every job a recruiter posts on LinkedIn should be authentic and accurately represented, and all listings on LinkedIn are automatically closed after six months,” LinkedIn said in an emailed response to ET’s request for comment.
Job market watchers say such postings help companies maintain a ready pipeline of talent while also helping them assess their own internal talent pool. Ghost postings also help them gather insights on talent trends, assess skilled talent availability, and, in some cases, conduct internal parity checks or frame future hiring budgets.
Ghost postings have seen a sharp rise since last year, said Aditya Mishra, chief executive at staffing and recruitment services firm CIEL HR Services. “We are seeing that half of the roles that job seekers applied for are reposted within weeks. In many cases, interview processes progress only for the positions to be put ‘on hold’ or cancelled midway.”
A large number of companies that make such ghost postings are from sectors like construction, technology, legal services, food and hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare and retail. Many of these firms are small to midsize, said Karthikeyan Kesavan, director and head of business – permanent recruitment at Adecco, a workforce solutions provider.
Appraisal Season Strategy
These firms want to project growth, maintain a strong employer brand, or collect CVs to understand market trends, say experts. “Some are also driven by investor pressure or AI-led restructuring where hiring plans are frequently revised,” said Mishra.
“We are seeing an increasing trend of ghost job postings, up by 25-30% year-on-year,” said Kesavan. “They use this tactic to attract a larger candidate pool, though only about 20% of these vacancies actually materialise.”
ET spoke to executives at several companies who confirmed this trend while speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Such posts help us in image building. It makes the world think that we are growing faster than we are,” said a senior executive at a midsize engineering firm.
His company recently started posting ghost jobs on a professional network. There will be no hiring done for the listing and if there is a requirement in that role, it will be closed internally, the executive added.
Another senior executive of a multinational import-export firm said his firm usually puts up ghost jobs just before the appraisal season in summer to gauge the compensation at the industry level. “We felt that some employees were not paid as per the industry standards. When we assessed the market, it helped us in giving rational increments to our own people,” the executive said.
LinkedIn, the professional networking platform where companies often post job vacancies, said it uses advanced technology and expert teams to remove more than 99% of fake accounts and scams before they are reported. “Our policies are clear that every job a recruiter posts on LinkedIn should be authentic and accurately represented, and all listings on LinkedIn are automatically closed after six months,” LinkedIn said in an emailed response to ET’s request for comment.
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