The Ghost Jobs Report
ShouldApply tracks 169,921 active job postings in its shared pool and scores 8,907 listings across 4,041 employers for hiring intent. This report aggregates what our live data shows about ghost jobs: listings with little to no chance of an actual hire.
By Jesse Johnson, Founder of ShouldApply
169,921
active postings in pool
8,907
postings scored (4,041 employers)
62%
of pool lists no salary
16%
of scored jobs show high ghost risk
Ghost Job Risk by Posting Age (Under 7 Days vs. 90+ Days)
Share of scored postings classified as high ghost risk (50%+ probability) by days since initial posting across 4,041 employers. Source: ShouldApply live database (8,907 scored postings across 4,041 employers, as of 2026-11-02).
| Posting Age Bracket | Scored Postings | High Ghost Risk (50%+) | Avg Ghost Score | High-Risk Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 7 days | 778 | 0 | 10% | 0% |
| 7–14 days | 833 | 0 | 10% | 0% |
| 15–30 days | 2,315 | 1 | 10% | 0% |
| 31–60 days | 1,022 | 5 | 17% | 0.5% |
| 61–90 days | 344 | 32 | 20% | 9.3% |
| Over 90 days | 3,563 | 1,370 | 36% | 38.5% |
Estimated Ghost Risk Across 8,907 Scored Postings
Average estimated risk: 22% (scored 0 to 95% across 8,907 postings from 4,041 employers, drawn from 169,921 active pool listings). Derived from posting duration, salary omission, description depth, and recurring ATS refresh loops. See the full detection methodology here.
| Risk Tier | Percentage of Scored Postings | Scored Postings (Count) |
|---|---|---|
| Low risk (0-24%) | 72% | 6,379 |
| Moderate (25-49%) | 13% | 1,120 |
| High risk (50%+) | 16% | 1,408 |
Salary Transparency by Job Board
A missing salary range is the single most common ghost signal. Share of postings with no salary listed, by board (sampled from 169,921 active pool postings as of 2026-11-02):
| Job Board / Platform | Postings Sampled | Omitted Salary Count | No Salary Listed (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45,624 | 36,955 | 81% | |
| Greenhouse | 12,639 | 2,907 | 23% |
| Indeed | 11,808 | 3,306 | 28% |
| ZipRecruiter | 9,232 | 5,262 | 57% |
| USAJOBS | 8,405 | 0 | 0% |
| Ashby | 7,332 | 1,173 | 16% |
| Jobgether | 3,323 | 2,991 | 90% |
| Google Jobs | 3,184 | 1,560 | 49% |
Explore the Company-by-Company Ghost Job Index
Looking for transparency metrics by specific employer? Browse real-time salary disclosure rates, median posting ages, and hiring signals across 190+ companies. To compare places instead, see ghost signals by state on the job postings map.
Stop applying to jobs that were never real
ShouldApply estimates ghost risk (0 to 95%) on every job it scores for you, alongside a 0-100 fit score against your actual skills. Score your first jobs free or try the free ghost job checker.
Method note: figures are live aggregates over the ShouldApply active posting pool (169,921 postings) and scored-job set (8,907 postings across 4,041 employers) as of 2026-11-02. Ghost risk is an estimated probability (0 to 95%) derived from public posting signals, not a determination about any specific employer's intent. Sample composition skews toward the roles our users search for.
Ghost jobs, answered
What is a ghost job?
A ghost job is a listing with little to no chance of an actual hire. It might be an evergreen req, a repost that never closes, or a role already filled internally. The posting stays up even though nobody is being hired for that seat.
How does ShouldApply estimate ghost-job risk?
Every job ShouldApply scores gets an estimated ghost probability from 0 to 95%. Seven public posting signals feed into it, including posting age, a missing salary range, a vague description and repost patterns. The methodology page lists every signal and how much it counts.
Why does posting age matter so much?
Real openings get filled. A posting still up at 90+ days has usually lost its budget, its urgency, or both. Age is the single most predictive signal in our data, which is why the first chart on this page tracks risk by posting age.
Is a job without a salary range more likely to be a ghost job?
It is one of the strong signals. A company that will not name a number often has no approved budget for the seat, and across our pool most postings with no salary also carry other risk signals. On its own, a missing salary does not prove a posting is fake.
Can I check whether one specific job is a ghost job?
Yes. Paste the listing into the free ghost job checker, or sign up and every job ShouldApply scores for you shows its ghost risk next to a 0-100 fit score.
How accurate are these ghost-risk estimates?
They are probabilistic signals, not proof, and a high estimate can be wrong about any individual posting. The pool also skews toward the roles our users search for, so it is not a census of the job market.