By bizn_fun 
So why are companies posting ghost jobs? Dr Escalera’s research suggests a variety of reasons.
“We surveyed hiring managers, and found some companies post positions to create a talent pool,” she says. “It isn’t that they don’t want to hire, it’s more they’re not hiring immediately.
“Others, we found, were inflating numbers and trying to show their company is growing, even if it’s not.”
Dr Escalera adds that she has also heard examples of companies posting jobs to obtain and sell data.
Whatever the reason for the fake adverts, Dr Escalera cautions that it is giving governments a false picture of job markets, which has negative, real-world consequences.
“We use data to develop policy and understand what market trends look like, and so if that data is somehow skewed, then we’re not able to create the policies or provide the support that job seekers and employees need right now,” she says.
For jobhunters hoping to avoid ghost jobs, Dr Escalera advises that they try to network with hiring managers.
“You will know a position is real if you’re having conversations with real humans who work at that organisations,” she says.
But, she adds, you should also look for red flags. “If you see that a job is being posted multiple times during a certain time frame, or that the job posting has been open for a while, then it is possible the posting is staying open because the job is not intended to be filled.”