ghost job

Definition

A job posting that remains listed despite the position being filled, cancelled, or never actually available. The corporate equivalent of catfishing, wasting candidates' time on phantom opportunities.

Example Usage

I applied to fifty jobs last month, but half were probably ghost jobs posted just to make the company look like it's growing.

Origin

Term emerged in the 2020s as job seekers noticed persistently open postings during tight labor markets

Fun Fact

Research suggests up to 43% of job postings in 2023 were ghost jobs, kept active to build talent pools, satisfy legal requirements, or make understaffed teams look temporary.

Source: Contemporary recruiting and job market terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

Skill Gap

The distance between what employees can actually do and what the company wishes they could do, which is somehow always the employee's problem to solve. The gap is usually bridged by a mandatory LinkedIn Learning course and sheer willpower.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

Workforce Planning

The strategic process of predicting how many humans you'll need in the future, which is about as accurate as weather forecasting but with higher stakes. By the time the plan is finalized, three people have quit and the budget has been cut.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

intern

A person working for experience instead of money, which is definitely a fair trade according to your employer. Often found fetching coffee and mastering the art of looking busy while learning that their degree taught them nothing about the actual job. The term technically means someone imprisoned, which feels surprisingly accurate around month three.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

internship

A mutually beneficial arrangement where students gain "valuable experience" while companies gain valuable free (or underpaid) labor. Often the corporate equivalent of an audition, where bright-eyed candidates perform grunt work in exchange for LinkedIn bragging rights and the distant promise of actual employment. Despite the educational spin, it's basically a trial period where both parties determine if they can tolerate each other for 40+ hours a week.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

employees

The humans who exchange their time, skills, and sanity for money and the occasional pizza party. Unlike contractors, they're the ones actually entitled to benefits, PTO, and the dubious privilege of attending all-hands meetings. In HR-speak, they're 'talent' or 'human capital,' because calling them 'people we pay' lacks sophistication.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

PTO

Paid Time Off, which is technically time away from work that you're paid for, except you'll spend half of it answering Slack messages and the other half feeling guilty for not answering them faster.

👥 Human Resources

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