Ghost jobs statistics 2026: what percentage of job postings are fake?
Last updated · By the Scowter team
Short answer
There is no official figure. The Congressional Research Service said in April 2025 that no official statistics exist. Greenhouse classified 18% to 22% of jobs posted on its platform each quarter as ghost jobs (December 2024). Clarify Capital flagged about 1 in 7 Indeed listings in February 2026. In a May 2024 Resume Builder survey, 40% of hiring managers said they posted a fake listing in the past year.
Key statistics
These are the most cited ghost job figures. Each one measures a different thing, so they cannot be added up or compared directly.
| Statistic | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Official statistics on ghost jobs | None exist | Congressional Research Service, IF12977, 25 April 2025 |
| Jobs posted on Greenhouse classified as ghost jobs, per quarter | 18% to 22% | Greenhouse 2024 State of Job Hunting report, December 2024 |
| Candidates who suspect they met a ghost job | 3 in 5 | Greenhouse survey of 2,500 workers in the US, UK and Germany, December 2024 |
| Indeed listings active 30+ days (flagged as potential ghost jobs) | About 1 in 7 | Clarify Capital, 176,268 Indeed listings, February 2026 |
| Senior-level postings flagged | 21% | Clarify Capital, February 2026 |
| Hiring managers who posted a fake listing in the past year | 40% | Resume Builder survey of 649 hiring managers, May 2024 |
| Job seekers who applied to, or suspect they applied to, a fake or unfilled posting | 93% (520 of 559) | Huntr Q1 2026 survey, April to May 2026 |
| US job openings vs hires | 7.5 million openings, 5.4 million hires | BLS JOLTS, September 2026 (released 3 November 2026) |
Why the published numbers conflict
Each study asks a different question. Greenhouse counts jobs on its own platform that it classifies as ghost jobs, meaning positions advertised with no intent to hire. It covers only Greenhouse customers, not every job board.
Clarify Capital, a business lending firm, scraped 176,268 Indeed listings across 49 industries in February 2026. It flagged any listing still active after 30 days. That measures how long a post stays live, and a slow-to-fill job can be real. It also flagged 51% of wholesale postings.
Resume Builder asked hiring managers directly. In May 2024, 40% of 649 said their company posted a listing it did not intend to fill in the past year. The top reasons were to look open to outside talent (67%) and to look like it is growing (66%).
Huntr measured belief, not employer behavior: 93% of job seekers in its Q1 2026 survey thought they had met a fake or unfilled posting.
What official data says
The Congressional Research Service primer of 25 April 2025 says there are no official statistics on ghost jobs. BLS JOLTS counts an opening only if a specific position exists, work could start within 30 days, and the employer is actively recruiting. So honest JOLTS answers are unlikely to include ghost jobs. The CRS adds that firms behind most ghost job studies sell hiring services and share little about their methods.
On 18 June 2026, Senator Ruben Gallego asked the Department of Labor, the FTC and BLS to study ghost jobs, Fortune reported. For September 2026, BLS reported 7.5 million openings and 5.4 million hires. Openings and hires are different measures, so a gap between them does not prove that postings are fake.
What this means for your job search
You cannot know for sure if one posting is real. You can lower the time you lose to stale posts.
- Check the posting date. Clarify Capital used 30 days as its warning line. Older posts deserve less of your time.
- Look for the same job on the company's own careers page. Huntr found employer career sites had a 6.0% interview rate in Q3 2026, against 3.4% for job boards.
- Message a recruiter or hiring manager at the company and ask if the role is still open.
- Spread your effort. Do not wait on a single application.
How Scowter helps
Scowter's free AI job search pulls jobs from 150+ job boards in one place, so you can compare a posting across sites and spot old ones. With Hire Us, a Human + AI team runs the hunt for you: it applies, tailors your CV, messages recruiters and follows up, which helps you find out quickly which roles are active.