General Discussion

Ghost jobs are honestly... I am not sure if ghost jobs are worse than AI, but to me they can end up being worse or just as bad. I do not really have any issues with AI. What I am saying is that the reason ghost jobs are so bad is that they are very, very common, and that is the problem. Because they are so common, it boosts the chances of you running into one. The more there are, the more likely you are to encounter one.

Not only that, but some companies make job listings with the literal intent of not hiring anyone from them, and that makes everything worse. In my opinion, we should be more careful with the jobs we pick, but that becomes difficult because if you are trying to find a good job, the real jobs that are actually hiring are pushed down the back burner by all these fake ghost jobs. They are shoved down the line by fake listings that honestly do not exist as real opportunities.

That is my problem. They are being pushed down the algorithm and shoved into the back burner by fake job listings and fake job offers. The listing itself may be real, but the offer is not. The offer is only there to make it look like the company is hiring, and that is what I do not like about it.

I want to have a job one day, but it is discouraging because many people want jobs alongside me. Many people want jobs too. For generations, people have noticed that it was very hard to get jobs at first, and some of that was blamed on the bad press around Generation Z and some poor job practices among Gen Z workers. However, when I found out that ghost jobs exist, I realized that it is possible that it is not just our behavior as Generation Z. I am Generation Z, and it may not only be about our behavior. It is possible that companies are not really hiring us.

Generation Z is very young and inexperienced. What we do is see a job listing and think, “Oh, that job might be hiring.” We do not always check behind it or verify it. We do not even know the signs to look for because we are just entering the workforce. Some of us were never taught how to properly search for or evaluate a job listing.

So instead of fact checking everything, we do what we saw others do. Many of us were raised by the internet and television, so we follow what we think is expected. Even our parents never had to worry about something like this. We were always presented with the idea that if someone posts a job offer, they are doing it with the intent of hiring people. That is our assumption when we see something like that online.

So we go online and pick the first job that seems good. Often we apply only to jobs we want, or simply any job that sounds decent. We do not assume it is fake. We believe it will work out, and that the listing is real. Then we do not get called back.

At that point we think, maybe the job was already filled and the listing was just left up. Maybe I did my resume wrong. Maybe my resume was too long and they did not want to read it. Maybe I should make it shorter. Or maybe they simply did not want me, so I will go find another job. I am sure someone will want me.

But what we do not realize is that sometimes we are not being hired because there was never any intention to hire anyone. There was never an intent to bring you onto the team. The intent was to make it look like they were hiring when they were not. In reality, there was never any plan to take you on or make you part of the company. You were never meant to get that job.

I think that is one reason many Gen Z relatives and others are struggling to find work. It is not just the stigma around Gen Z or poor job practices. It is also ghost jobs, the fake listings that were never meant to be filled. As a result, our time gets wasted on things that never mattered because we were never going to get anything from them.

It might seem like a small amount of time, but it still adds up. Someone can create a fake job listing very quickly now, sometimes using AI or simple templates. Meanwhile, job seekers spend time writing resumes and applying. The real issue for me is not the time spent applying. My main concern is job availability and visibility.

My biggest concern is not that companies are not hiring. My concern is that companies are hiring, but the real jobs are not being seen. Fake listings crowd them out. If I go on a site like Indeed and try to find a job, a real company might post a legitimate job offer. However, that offer can get buried in the algorithm. The algorithm may not boost it, so the company waits for applicants while nobody sees the listing. Then they wonder why nobody wants to work for them.

The reality is that people may want to work for them, but the fake jobs are so numerous that they dominate the algorithm. The algorithm boosts those listings while legitimate jobs get buried underneath them. That is my concern.

That is why I want fake job offers removed from the internet. To me, they are more harmful than AI in this situation. Even with AI, companies can still hire you. But with fake job listings, you may never find the companies that actually want to hire you because they are buried under a sea of fake offers pushed up by the algorithm.

That is why I am upset about it. I even sent an email to the president and vice president to alert them about this issue, along with an infographic video explaining the problem with fake jobs. My concern is that this affects not only other people but also me.

Sometimes companies also post fake listings to scare their current employees. By making it look like they are hiring replacements, they try to make workers feel replaceable so they will work harder. That tactic can also bury legitimate job listings under fake ones.

To me, that does not make sense. Most people are already working because they need money to survive and feed their families. They may not even know that the company is supposedly hiring. They are not working hard because they feel replaceable. They are working hard because they need to live.

There is no need to clog the system with meaningless listings that companies never plan to use. Some employers say they just want to collect resumes, but if that is the case, there should be a separate section for resume collection that is not boosted by the algorithm. That section could simply store resumes for future openings.

Meanwhile, the main job listings should only show positions that are actively hiring. That way people can apply to real opportunities instead of wasting time on listings that will never lead to a job. Ideally, those resume collection listings would either be placed in a separate unlisted area or removed entirely if there is no real intention to hire.