Published on May 23, 2026
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You found a job posting that seems perfect. The title fits, the company sounds interesting, the location works. You spend an evening tailoring your resume, write a cover letter, and submit your application.
Three weeks later: nothing. A month later: still nothing.
Maybe you weren't the right fit — but maybe the job was never meant to be filled.
Research by Greenhouse (2024) shows that 27% of all job postings on LinkedIn are so-called "ghost jobs": listings that exist for various reasons, but where no active hiring need exists at the time of posting. LinkedIn itself acknowledged in 2023 that a significant portion of its listings are outdated or inactive. And a Resume Builder survey found that 81% of hiring managers admit to having posted a ghost job in the past year.
This article explains what ghost jobs are, why companies post them, and how to recognise them — before you invest hours in an application that leads nowhere.
A ghost job is a vacancy where the company is not actively hiring for that role at the time of publication. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll never hire — but the chance that your application leads to an interview is low.
Ghost jobs aren't always deliberate deception. They arise for several reasons:
Building a talent pipeline. Companies want a reservoir of candidates available for when a need does arise. They collect CVs without intending to process them now.
Internal candidate already chosen. The position is effectively filled — internally or through a network — but HR is required to advertise it formally (compliance, shareholder requirement, or internal procedure).
Department in reorganisation. Budget has been requested but not yet approved. The vacancy goes live "just in case" the approval comes through.
Abandoned hiring process. A recruiter left, the team was reorganised, or the priority shifted — but nobody removed the posting.
Market research. Companies sometimes post vacancies to see what candidates are available, what they earn, and what the market looks like — with no short-term intention to hire.
You don't need to see all fifteen to be cautious. Two or three red flags together are already a reason to verify the posting before you start writing.
1. No salary information or "competitive salary"
Companies that are actively hiring want to attract the right candidates quickly. Omitting a salary range increases response time and filters candidates poorly. A vague mention of "competitive salary" or "market rate" without a band is a weak signal that the role hasn't been properly scoped.
2. Vague responsibilities, no concrete deliverables
A real job posting is written by someone who knows what the role involves. If the tasks are generic ("contribute to company growth", "collaborate with diverse teams"), that's a sign the role hasn't been concretely thought through.
3. No team size or reporting structure
Who will you report to? How large is the team? What kind of people already work there? A real hiring manager knows this and mentions it. If that context is entirely absent, the posting was likely written by someone who has never actually filled the role.
4. Requirements list exceeding 15 items
A wishlist of five years' experience, three certifications, two languages, and ten specific skills simultaneously indicates a posting written without realistic expectations — or designed to describe an already-known internal candidate.
5. "Rockstar", "ninja", "guru" or "wizard" language
This phrasing signals an old or carelessly assembled template. Companies that are seriously hiring in 2026 no longer use these terms.
6. Generic boilerplate identical to other postings
Copy a sentence from the job description and search for it. If you find it word-for-word at ten other companies, the text was copied — suggesting there's no owner who is actively looking to hire.
7. No contact person or hiring manager named
An active hiring process always has an owner. No name, no email, no LinkedIn profile of the recruiter — that's a sign responsibility is diffuse or the posting is dormant.
8. Posted more than 60 days ago
Most active hiring processes take four to eight weeks. A vacancy that has been online for three months without updates is either actively managed poorly, or no longer active but forgotten.
9. Reposted multiple times within the same year
If you can see on LinkedIn or Indeed that the vacancy was reposted (same company, same title, similar description), it means either they haven't found anyone suitable — or they're regularly collecting profiles without ever actually hiring.
10. No signs of urgency
Phrases like "start date to be determined", "subject to budget", or a missing start date indicate a posting that isn't yet serious.
11. Company has little or no LinkedIn presence
If the company posting the vacancy has almost no employees on LinkedIn, no recent posts, or a company page that was recently created, that's a risk signal.
12. Recent layoffs or hiring freeze at the same company
A quick search for "company name + layoffs" or a look at recent LinkedIn updates from the company. A company that let go of ten percent of its staff three months ago and is now aggressively hiring can do that — but it warrants a second look.
13. No Glassdoor or Kununu reviews, or exclusively negative ones
No reviews can mean the company is too small for reviews — or that nobody has worked there long enough to say anything about it.
14. No confirmation or response within two weeks
Active hiring processes respond. Even an automated confirmation is sometimes missing with ghost jobs, because the system isn't set up to handle active inflow.
15. The recruiter on LinkedIn has never shared the vacancy
Look up the hiring manager or recruiter at the company on LinkedIn. Have they ever shared the posting? Do they have recent activity? Are they still at that company? If the owner is absent, the process likely is too.
Not every job without a salary band is a ghost. Watch for positive signals too:
The more green flags, the more worthwhile it is to invest time in a strong application.
Before you spend hours on a CV and cover letter, there are three quick verification steps:
Step 1 — Check the publication date. LinkedIn shows when a vacancy was posted. More than six weeks ago? Search LinkedIn Jobs or Indeed to see if the same posting appeared earlier.
Step 2 — Find the recruiter on LinkedIn. Is there a name on the posting? Look that person up. Are they still at that company? Is there recent activity on their profile? Send a short, professional message: "I'm interested in the [role] position — is the hiring process currently active?"
Step 3 — Check the company's growth status. Has the company been hiring or letting people go over the past twelve months? LinkedIn partially shows this on the company profile. A company that is shrinking while aggressively recruiting is a signal worth taking seriously.
On average, a job seeker spends three to five hours on one serious application: tailoring a CV, writing a cover letter, filling in the online form, preparing a portfolio. At ten applications per month, that adds up to fifty hours — more than a full working week.
If 27% of those vacancies are never filled, you're losing an average of fifteen hours per month to applications that structurally lead nowhere.
The simplest way to avoid that: check the posting before you start writing.
The Ghost Job Detector by Aycabtu analyses a job posting against all the signals above simultaneously. Paste the full job description into the field, and within seconds you get:
The check is free — no subscription, no credit card.
It takes less than a minute. If the score is low, you save yourself an evening of work. If the score is high, you apply with more confidence.
Try it
Upload your resume and paste a job description — get your ATS score, missing keywords, and concrete tips. Free.
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