The Ghost Jobs Depression

Yes.

So you and I have touched in the past, we've talked about employers ghosting candidates and the impact.

We've talked about even more candidates ghosting employers, right? Not showing up on day one when they've been hired.

And it's something that I don't think we really have talked much about together is ghost jobs, right?

Yeah.

And, and let me just, I'll add one thing.

And then I, so, and I know, I know these things happen.

I know, and we'll define ghost jobs in a minute too.

And, and I'm sure many TA teams know exactly what I'm talking about, but it was an article that I read in the wall street journal talking about that ghost jobs is causing such a continued ruckus that there are state legislatures in the US that are trying to combat that.

And the thing that I, before I let you kind of comment on it, I mean, it's, you know, literally they're active listings for supposedly non-existent filled or frozen positions, right? And the range that I saw from this, 18 to 35% of all job openings, the article in the Wall Street Journal was, this was a quote from Greenhouse Software said it was last quarter, it was 19%.

And I just want to be really clear with everybody, and then I'll shut up and let you talk, is that this, I'm not naive, but this is depressing to me.

It's depressing to me that in this market that we're in, that literally this is a continued practice, and people who are struggling to find work and applying for jobs, take all the fraud and fake candidates out of it, real people.

And so it's – anyway, so let's unpack that more because it's kind of bumming me out a little bit.

I

think a lot here.

So let's start with what are ghost jobs? In their surface, they're jobs in which there is no clear path to hire for a specific role.

Right.

That kind of makes sense, right? Yes, sure.

That's bad.

Yeah.

And to be fair, historically, the staffing firms have been the biggest perpetrators of this behavior.

That is true.

And in their defense, I'm going to be a little pro-staffing for a moment.

There's actually a really good reason for this.

And the reason is that in the game of staffing, one of the things that matters more than anything else is the speed in which you can introduce a candidate into an organization.