Beth Owens has been on a job hunt for just over two years. She holds master’s degree in business administration, and has managed teams of up to a twelve people while overseeing $2 million in annual sales revenue for over twenty years. Still, the callbacks rarely come.

“It doesn’t matter what I do,” she said. “The jobs just aren’t there.”

Her experience is indicative of a wider pattern in the United States labor market. Known as “ghost jobs,” these are listings for positions that companies often do not plan to fill, that is, they are listed with no intention of being filled. The postings are often used to stockpile résumés and signal organizational growth to stakeholders. But for individuals seeking employment like Ms. Owens, they present a costly distraction from legitimate opportunities.

A 2023 survey conducted by Clarify Capital, a financial research platform, found that 68 percent of hiring managers had kept job ads open for roles for which they were not actively recruiting. Half admitted to posting such listings explicitly to build a pipeline of future candidates. Others cited reasons such as meeting diversity benchmarks.

“This is nearly all new since the internet,” said Dan Weltman, Associate Professor of Human Resources at Western Connecticut State University. “A job ad used to run in the newspaper, and it cost money. Now companies can post listings cheaply or even for free — there’s no incentive not to.”

Platforms like LinkedIn, Monster.com, and Indeed have made mass posting significantly easier. A 60-day listing on Monster cost employers just $300 in 2003 and could reach tens of millions of users. By contrast, print ads were more expensive and, because they were constrained geographically, had limited reach. As more job seekers moved online, so did the incentives to post listings — even those not meant to be filled.

A 2021 investigation by Bleeping Computer revealed that unauthorized users could post jobs under existing company pages on LinkedIn, routing applications to external emails without detection. The Federal Trade Commission reported that job and employment agency fraud tripled between 2020 and 2024, growing from 38,000 complaints to more than 105,000, with consumer losses exceeding $500 million.

For applicants, the cost is often personal. According to surveys by Forbes, ResumeBuilder, and Clarify Capital, more than 60 percent of companies acknowledged using ghost listings to give the impression of incoming help or to make current employees feel more replaceable in order to dissuade them from pursuing employment elsewhere. Time spent tailoring applications — often several hours per position — adds up. In some cases, job seekers have reported submitting hundreds of applications with little or no response.

Psychologically, the silence can have lasting effects. “It’s not just the rejection — it’s the complete lack of closure,” Ms. Owens said. “You don’t know if the job was real, if you weren’t qualified, or if it ever existed in the first place.”

Despite the obstacles, Ms. Owens continues to apply and encourages others to do the same. “Keep trying,” she said. “And remember, sometimes — it’s not you.”

Several weeks after this interview, Ms. Owens resilience payed off, she interviewed and was hired to a public role with F.E.M.A.