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

(arxiv.org)
391 points JSeymourATL | 2 comments | 14 Nov 24 14:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.417s | source
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duxup ◴[14 Nov 24 14:54 UTC] No.42136673[source]▶
>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 certainly have "gotten" what I thought was a ghost job. I went through the whole process ... they "wanted" to hire me. But didn't actually have a start date / couldn't actually hire me. For everyone involved though they seemed to be able to justify posting the job, interviews, because IMO, it made THEM look busy / effective.

The whole hiring people industrial complex seems oriented to be focused on the process of hiring (high fives for ever more complex hiring processes / delays) ... and not at all on the outcome (did we hire someone, were they good?).

It's the ultimate system where simply doing anything is "success" / and more processes rewarded, and there's almost no good measureless about outcomes for the company.

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charliebwrites ◴[14 Nov 24 14:59 UTC] No.42136736[source]▶
> 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 find “the one”. That’s not how that works and isn’t an efficient use of time

Seems like a bunch of busy work for nothing

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1. coliveira ◴[14 Nov 24 15:26 UTC] No.42137095[source]▶
This "pipeline" thing is just an excuse. Companies are ALWAYS in the look for a special talent. This is not a real problem. If they find a very competent person they will offer the job. Otherwise, which is 99% of the time, they'll just say they're building a pipeline. It is the same mindset of a predator, they can justify being always looking for new pray, even though they know they'll only get it very rarely.
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2. thaumasiotes ◴[14 Nov 24 22:34 UTC] No.42141920[source]▶
> It is the same mindset of a predator, they can justify being always looking for new pray, even though they know they'll only get it very rarely.

This doesn't sound right; meat spoils. If you've just killed something, it would be a lot of effort and danger to kill something else, all for almost zero benefit.