Survey: Almost 40% of Companies Are Posting Fake Job Ads

A lot of companies are posting fake, or "ghost," job ads, sometimes in an effort to convince overworked employees that help is on the way, according to a survey from Resume Builder. The website says that it surveyed 649 hiring managers earlier this year and that 39% of them said their company had posted a fake job ad in the past year.

• Reasons. Resume Builder says the chief reason hiring managers gave for posting fake job ads was to make the company "look open to external talent." Other reasons cited by 60% or more of the managers included to make it appear the company is growing, to make employees feel "replaceable," to make employees believe "their workload will be alleviated" and to keep resumes on file for possible later use.

• No shame. The survey found that 70% of hiring managers believe posting fake listings is morally acceptable. Stacie Haller, Resume Builder's chief careers adviser, strongly disagrees. "The frustration candidates experience due to fake job postings exacerbates the already stressful job search process," she says. "Companies engaging in this practice not only tarnish their reputation but also sabotage their long-term prospects. Deceptive practices erode trust, dissuading potential applicants from considering them in the future as viable employers."
• It gets worse. In what Quartz describes as an "even more concerning" result, the survey found that 85% of the companies that posted fake job ads went ahead and interviewed people for the phony jobs.
• How to spot a ghost ad. After a survey from Clarify Capital had similar results last fall, Forbes offered a guide to spotting fake ads. Red flags include an overly vague job description, an ad that is persistently posted over a long period of time and a job that appears too good to be true.

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