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The Ghost Job Index: [MONTH YEAR]

The Job Scout

The Ghost Job Index — [Month Year]

Every application package we build starts the same way: before we write a single word of a résumé or cover letter, we open the original job posting and verify it's still alive. We check the employer's own careers portal. We look for "no longer accepting applications" badges. We read the hire-by date. We refuse to waste a client's time on a job that was dead before they ever saw it.

We call the rule The Liveness Method, and we publish the results here every month so the category has a number it can point at.

This month's number

We verified [N] job postings in [Month Year].

[X]% of them were already dead.

That breaks down as:

  • [Y]% — the employer's own careers portal no longer listed the role
  • [Z]% — LinkedIn / Indeed / ZipRecruiter marked the post "no longer accepting applications"
  • [W]% — the role was posted more than 90 days ago with no update
  • [V]% — the post redirected to a generic careers page with no matching role

What "dead" looks like in practice

A ghost job isn't just a posting the employer forgot to take down. There are several distinct flavors, and each one wastes a different kind of time:

1. The closed requisition

The posting exists on the aggregator but the employer closed the role internally weeks ago. The aggregator has no way to know. You apply. Nothing happens. You wait.

2. The pipeline builder

Some employers — especially large ones — leave evergreen listings up for popular roles to build a talent pool for future needs. No one is hiring right now. Your application goes into a database, not an interview pile.

3. The compliance post

Certain immigration and employment programs require employers to publicly post a job before they can hire a specific candidate they already chose. The job is "live" in name only. The winner has already been selected.

4. The bait listing

A staffing firm posts a dream job that doesn't exist, to collect résumés for a pitch deck they're taking to a real client. Common on the lower end of the recruiting market.

5. The forgotten post

The most common by far. Someone posted it six months ago, the role was filled, nobody updated the aggregator. It still shows up in your search results.

Where the ghosts live

This month, the three worst offenders were:

  1. [Source A] — [% ghost rate, short explanation]
  2. [Source B] — [% ghost rate, short explanation]
  3. [Source C] — [% ghost rate, short explanation]

And the three most honest:

  1. [Source D] — [% ghost rate]
  2. [Source E] — [% ghost rate]
  3. [Source F] — [% ghost rate]

What it means for you

If you apply to 100 jobs in a typical month using an aggregator search, you're almost certainly wasting [N] of those applications on postings that aren't real. You'll tailor a résumé for a role that will never be read. You'll wait two weeks for a reply that isn't coming. You'll second-guess your materials when the problem was never your side of the screen.

The fix is simple and boring: verify every posting before you invest the time. We do it for our clients as part of The Liveness Method. If you're running your own search, you can do it yourself:

  1. Open the employer's own careers page — not the aggregator. If the role isn't there, it's gone.
  2. Check the "date posted" field. More than 30 days old with no update is a yellow flag. More than 60 days is red.
  3. Look for "no longer accepting applications" — LinkedIn is good about this. Indeed is not.
  4. Search the company's LinkedIn for the hiring manager. If nobody's posting about hiring for the role, it's probably not active.

Why we publish this

Because nobody else in the category will. Every résumé service and application blitz on the internet has a commercial reason to keep you applying. We have a commercial reason to tell you when it's a waste.

If you'd rather send 50 real applications than 500 wasted ones, that's what we do. Book a free call →

The Liveness Method is Job Scout's standard for every application package we build. We verify every posting is alive before we write a single word. This index is how we keep ourselves honest and the number public.

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