// ghost jobs
Some postings are not being filled. freehire tells you which, and why it thinks so.
Between 18% and 27% of listings on the big boards are jobs nobody is working to fill — kept up to collect CVs, to look like growth, or because nobody took them down. You cannot tell from the page. Every hour spent on one is unpaid work you will never hear about.
freehire watches two things it can actually check: how a posting behaves over time, and what happened to people who applied. When enough of them line up, the job carries a mark — and the facts behind it.
// the line we do not cross
What we can check
“Open 240 days, reposted 13 times, seven copies live at once, and absent from the employer's own careers board.” Every part of that is verifiable, and every part is shown to you.
What we never claim
“This company is not really hiring.” That is a claim about somebody's intent, which no amount of data here can observe. So the wording stays hedged, and the word ghost never appears on a job.
// the four signals
Two describe the posting. Two describe what happened to a person who applied. Only the second kind can witness that a job is not being worked, so no quantity of the first will ever produce the stronger warning.
The shape of the posting
Posting behaves as evergreen
Open 240 days · reposted 13× · 7 copies open at once
One role advertised over and over, often with several copies live at the same time. It never fires on age alone — a genuinely hard senior role stays open a long time. Age is measured from when freehire first saw the posting, not from the date the source prints, so refreshing that date does not reset it.
Not on the company's own careers board
Not on the company's own careers board · checked 2 days ago
The posting reached us through an aggregator, and the same role is not on the employer's own board. It only counts where we actually crawl that board — otherwise absence would report our blind spot as the employer's fault. The check is re-run continuously and expires if it stops, so a stale answer goes quiet instead of standing.
What happened to applicants
Applications here went unanswered
Applications through freehire went unanswered past their follow-up window
People who applied here, whose mailbox is connected so a reply would have been seen, and who were not answered within the window their stage tolerates. Without a connected mailbox we could not tell silence from a gap in our data, so those applications are not counted at all.
People reported no response
People reported applying with no response
Someone states they applied on a given date and heard nothing. It carries no weight until the same span has passed that a tracked application gets, and it can be withdrawn — an employer who answers late costs the posting its evidence.
// what you actually see
On a card — a hedged chip and how many criteria fired out of how many were checked:
- Possibly inactive — 2 criteria fired, but nobody who applied has told us anything.
- Likely inactive — at least 2 different people who applied went unanswered, and something else fired too.
On the job page — the full checklist, including what we do not know. The empty rows are the point: they tell you why the warning is not stronger.
Signs this posting may be inactive
2 / 4- Posting behaves as evergreen Open 240 days · reposted 13× · 7 copies open at once
- Not on the company's own careers board Checked 2 days ago
- Applications here went unanswered No data
- People reported no response No data
These are observations about the posting, not a claim about the employer.
// your part
The strongest signal is the one only you can give: you applied, and nobody ever answered. Reporting it takes one date.
Report the silence
On the job, choose Report → “No response”. It asks when you applied — that date is what separates a real silence from impatience.
It waits before it counts
Your report carries no weight until the same span has passed that a tracked application gets. Withdraw it if the employer eventually answers, and it stops counting.
It stays anonymous
Only a count leaves your report, and only once 2 different people have contributed — a count of one would point straight at you.
Connect a mailbox and it happens without you: freehire sees the reply arrive, or sees that it never did. Without a connected mailbox nothing is counted, because we could not tell silence from a gap in our own data.
// where it is blind
- We only check boards we crawl. If a company's own careers site is not one of them, its postings are not judged on that criterion at all — absence of proof is not proof.
- Age counts from when we first saw it. Sources that refresh a posting's date do not fool it, but a job that existed before we started crawling looks younger than it is.
- Agencies and consultancies fire the board criterion honestly. They advertise roles that belong to their clients, so those roles are genuinely absent from their own board. This is why one criterion is never enough on its own.
- A quiet employer is not a fake job. Recruiters go silent for ordinary reasons, which is why a silence needs a second person and a second signal before it says anything.
// questions
- What is a ghost job?
- A posting nobody is actually working to fill — kept up to collect CVs, to look like the company is growing, or simply because nobody took it down. Studies put it between 18% and 27% of listings; Greenhouse, which can see its own customers' hiring pipelines, reported 18–22% per quarter with 70% of its employers having listed at least one.
- Does freehire say a company is lying?
- No, and it is built so that it cannot. The system observes two things: how a posting behaves, and what happened to people who applied. It never observes intent, so the strongest thing it will say is that a posting may be inactive — always beside the specific facts that led there. "Open 240 days, found only on an aggregator" is checkable; "this employer is not really hiring" is a claim about someone's state of mind.
- How many signals does it take before I see anything?
- Two. A single signal is weak on its own — a genuinely hard senior role stays open a long time, and a company can be missing from our board coverage for reasons of its own — so one criterion alone shows nothing at all. You always see how many fired out of how many were checked.
- Why does it sometimes say "no data" instead of a verdict?
- Because that is the honest answer, and it tells you why the warning is not stronger. A posting flagged on two structural criteria with nothing known about applicants is a very different thing from one several people reported. Hiding the empty rows would leave you guessing which of the two you are looking at.
- Do you use my applications to flag jobs for other people?
- Only as an anonymous count, and only above a threshold. Nothing you wrote, no dates, no identity — and no count at all until at least two different people have contributed, because a count of one would point straight at the single person who applied. Below that threshold the number is absent from the response, not hidden in it.
- An unanswered application means the job is fake, then?
- No — that is why it takes two people and a second signal. Recruiters go quiet for ordinary reasons, and a silence only counts at all if your mailbox is connected, so a reply would have been seen. Where we cannot observe replies we count nothing, since a gap in our data is not an employer ignoring you.
- I applied and never heard back. How do I report it?
- Open the job, choose Report, and pick "No response". It asks one thing: when you applied. That date is what separates a real silence from impatience, and it is what makes your report useful to the next person. You can withdraw it if the employer eventually answers.
- Does a flagged job get hidden or pushed down?
- Neither. It keeps its place in search and in every list, and the mark disappears when the posting closes. The point is to tell you before you spend an hour on an application, not to make the decision for you.
Stop applying into the void
The catalogue is open and needs no account. Tracking your applications is what makes the signal sharper — for you, and for whoever reads the posting after you.