Kairos

Ghost jobs

AI Ghost-Job Detector

Of the 10,688 active AI job postings with a known posted date, about 59% were first posted 60+ days ago and are still listed - a ghost-job signal. A further 9,442 listings don't publish a posted date, so we can't assess them.

Updated Just now. A ghost-job signal is not proof a role is fake - it means the posting has been open unusually long.

59%
Show a ghost-job signal
6,354
Postings open 60+ days
10,688
Listings we could assess
9,442
No posted date (not assessed)

How long assessed postings have been open

Postings 60+ days old (2-6 months and beyond) are counted as ghost-job signals.

Companies with the most long-open roles

Ghost-signal rate by job board

Longest-open postings right now

How we classify

The signal is how long ago the employer posted the role, not how recently we last checked it exists. A posting first published 60+ days ago and still live shows a ghost-job signal. We assess only listings with a usable posted date: 9,442 listings publish no posted date and 1,018 carry a date older than 2 years (treated as unreliable) - both are excluded from the rate, not hidden. This is deliberately separate from the per-listing freshness badge, which reflects how recently we re-confirmed the posting.

What is a ghost job?
A job posting that stays open long after a normal hiring cycle - often because the role is already filled, on hold, or was never really open. There's no way to prove intent from the outside, so we treat a long-open posting as a signal, not a verdict.
How do you detect one?
We look at how long ago the employer first posted the role. A listing posted 60+ days ago that is still live shows a ghost-job signal. We only assess listings that publish a posted date, and we ignore dates older than 2 years as unreliable.
Isn't a job still open just because it's listed?
That's exactly the point. Our scraper re-confirms a posting still exists, but that only tells you the employer hasn't taken it down - not that they're still hiring. A role that's been public for months while our re-confirmation stays green is the classic ghost-job pattern.