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Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

arxiv.org

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Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#61

Post by dec0dedab0de »

I suspect the main reason it is hard to find a job is because interest rate induced layoffs, and remote work created too much competition. Five years ago I wasn’t competing with someone thousands of miles away with a phd who used to work at a faang.

As for Ghost Jobs, I think they are skipping how many are just scams collecting data. There are many fake recruiters just posting job listings on behalf of companies they are not affiliated with.

I would also be interested how many of ghost jobs listed by actual companies are on purpose vs just lazy. It would be nice to have a whistle blower

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#62

Post by protonbob »

shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

So basically you're wasting the interviewees time and breaking the law by admitting that you won't hire a citizen who would do the job just as well.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#63

Post by cjbgkagh »

shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

Rage baiting?

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#64

Post by Buttons840 »

charliebwrites wrote: post #23
duxup wrote: post #9

>The trend could be due to the low marginal cost of posting additional job ads and to maintain a pipeline of talents. After adjusting for yearly trends, I find that ghost jobs can explain the recent disconnect in the Beveridge Curve in the past fifteen years. The results show that policy-makers should be aware of such a practice as it causes significant job fatigue and distorts market signals. Very interesting. I cer…

> to maintain a pipeline of talents See, this is the part I don’t understand. If they don’t have real jobs available, what’s the point of building this “pipeline”? Are they genuinely going to plan to use this pipeline for future roles? Because simply posting a real job in the future will still get 1000s of applications which builds _real_ pipeline I don’t see recruiters going back through a bunch of old resumes to fi…

Having openings posted looks good to venture capitalists, which is, more and more, the way to succeed in our economy.

This has secondary effects of teaching people that having open positions is good just for the sake of it. They don't stop to analyze why they think that.

While the workers might be busy there are managers or HR people who want to appear busy, and job postings is a thing they can do. It also feels good to see a bunch of applicants and feel like you're in a position of power while sorting through them--and of some actual work comes along you can just ignore the applicants.

In short, there's no reason not to post a ghost job.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#65

Post by xvedejas »

shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

So when interviewing, perhaps I should skip more places that say citizenship required on the req, to avoid wasting my time?

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#66

Post by cj »

indoordin0saur wrote: post #41
shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

Wait, this isn't clear to me. Are the interviewees citizens? So you're interviewing citizens to prove that there aren't any who can fill your jobs but even when they clearly could fill the job you don't hire them? Seems like the requirement of proving "there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job" is going to be near impossible for the government to enforce

At the last startup I worked at, our CTO was on a visa.

To satisfy the "no one in the US can fill the CTO role", they took out an advertisement in a San Francisco newspaper classifieds so they had evidence that they attempted to find a US citizen / permanent resident CTO.

Obviously there were no applicants.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#68

Post by echoangle »

xyst wrote: post #45
shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

This isn't ethical. It shouldn't be legal. But it is. Welcome to America.

> It shouldn't be legal. But it is.

How is that legal? If you think the local applicant can do the job, you legally can’t hire the H-1B over them, right?

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#69

Post by spacebanana7 »

oriel wrote: post #17

A question I've had on my mind for a while now, watching this progression of fake or poisoned jobs, and miles of automatic systems to navigate: At what point do people consider the well poisoned? Where they just check out and stop applying, to specific companies or in general, because its very very obvious that there isnt actually a valid hiring market at all. I ask this question, because I've already passed this thr…

It really depends on the position of the prospective employee.

An unemployed person who needs a job should theoretically spend their workday hours on recruitment efforts. The prevalence of fake jobs might affect which roles they apply for but not the total number of applications.

However for employed individuals seeking a promotion it can have a big impact. Is it worth spending many hours of your leisure time applying/interviewing for a job that pays 10% more, if the job has even a small likelihood of being fake? Probably not.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#70

Post by pylua »

xyst wrote: post #39

> The results show that policy-makers should be aware of such a practice as it causes significant job fatigue and distorts market signals. > distorts market signals This is a feature, not a bug. Wall Street analysts have been using job posts as a signal for years to measure company current and future performance. * positive signal: more job posts compared to previous quarter, so company must be healthy! Buy, Buy, Buy…

Are you suggesting that companies are committing FRAUD ?
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