There is a high likelihood that the perfect role with the company you’d love to work for is not ... [+]
Thousands of white-collar professionals have lost their jobs recently due to the fast-changing economy. Eager to return to work, job hunters scour job boards, LinkedIn and corporate career sites. However, there is a high likelihood that the perfect role with the company you’d love to work for is not real, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In a survey conducted by Clarify Capital, around 25% of hiring managers self-reported that they’ve kept job listings open for more than four months. Moreover, they don’t intend to hire anyone in the near future.
The reasons for posting “ghost jobs” include building a pipeline of candidates for when the tide turns and recruiting gears up again, making it seem as if the company is doing well and expanding and humoring employees that help is on the horizon with new staff arriving to help with the workload.
Why Companies Post Phantom Jobs
As a recruiter, I’ve seen this trend play out over two decades. Human resources and hiring managers place phantom jobs, anticipating that things will improve and companies will eventually hire. The position is somewhat real, as the firm is lining up applicants for the future.
When companies lay off personnel, the extra work is dumped on the remaining employees. Feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by taking on more assignments for the same pay, they’ll contemplate leaving and seeking a new job. To appease the workers, posting a job buys time. It makes it look like the company understands that people are overworked and actively searching for new talent to fill the empty seats.
Businesses want to keep up appearances. Posting jobs gives off the illusion that the company is in good financial health and growing.
Job Aggregation Sites
Many job aggregation sites exist, such as Indeed, SimplyHired, GlassDoor, LinkUp and CareerJet. These sites scrape jobs from various sources and list them on their respective platforms. Often, there is a disconnect between the original posting on a career site, like JPMorgan, and the listing on a job aggregator site. The listing may linger on for many months, as the company that posted the role doesn’t have control of taking it off from the aggregator. It's in the best interest of aggregators to keep up the jobs longer to entice job hunters to keep returning. To someone unaware of this system, they’ll think the job is freshly posted, but, in actuality, it has been up for months.
Diversity Hiring
There is a big push for hiring diverse candidates. Jobs are posted to show that the company is trying to build an inclusive workforce. Most of the time, it's genuine. Other times, it's virtue signaling, and the jobs aren’t moving too quickly.
Somewhat related, hiring managers have already picked the person for the role, but need to publicly show that they are making a good-faith effort to interview a full slate of candidates.
Testing The Waters
One of the best ways to find out if a job catches the attention of job seekers is to put it out there. Once the job is posted, companies can ascertain if there is an interest. If it doesn't receive many applicants, the company may iterate and change the copy, include the salary or enhance the total compensation package.
It’s a little cold-blooded, but businesses place job postings to get a sense of whether or not they can get someone less expensive than current workers. In a tough job market with many people in between roles, a manager may feel they could let go of some low performers and malcontents and replace them with people who desperately need a new job and won’t push too much for a higher salary.
Picking Your Brain And Getting Free Work
Sometimes, companies want to pick the brains of job seekers. They want to find out what their competitors are up to, how much they pay their staff and whether or not they’re doing well.
A common lament of aggrieved job seekers is that they are made to do tasks, submit work products and offer ideas that the company will use.
A Big Issue That Impacts The Federal Reserve Bank’s Decisions
In a time when the United States Federal Reserve Bank is raising interest rates to combat inflation, relying upon, in part, job openings could lead to erroneous decisions being made by the Fed.
The U.S. Department of Labor releases a monthly jobs report showing how many jobs were created or lost. A lesser-known report is the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The report relies upon the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data about job openings. Since we now know that there are many dubious job listings, the government is operating on flawed data. Fake jobs may make the job market look better than it really is.
This May Make You Feel Better
It's easy to get frustrated when you keep searching and applying for jobs, but don't get any interviews. It may be cold comfort to know that it's not you; it's the system. In your job search, you must scrutinize the job listing for any hints that it may not be real. If you’re called in for an interview, be assertive. Let them know you’re aware of the proliferation of phantom jobs and ask direct questions to determine if the job is real. It may be awkward. However, you’re better off asking the tough questions to ensure that after months go by, you don’t get ghosted by a phantom job.
