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Proposal to Ban Ghost Jobs

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446 points Teever | 6 comments | 26 Aug 25 16:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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LorenPechtel ◴[26 Aug 25 17:21 UTC] No.45029568[source]▶
Only 17%??

Last time I was job hunting I found that 80%+ of postings were either dupes or bogus. Very vague description of the job? I'm going to keep seeing it for a long time, clearly they are not actually filling the role. Very specific, odd set of requirements, they're going through the motions but they've already picked the person and the ad is designed to match only that person.

I think they're going about this backwards. Leave the ad up, but they are required to amend it with external hire/internal hire/H-1B when the position is filled. Let people see what has happened in the past. And all jobs must be associated with some entity and indicate how long that entity has existed.

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DebtDeflation ◴[26 Aug 25 18:32 UTC] No.45030436[source]▶
It is absolutely 80%+. The majority of the time, it is a company looking to sponsor an H1B for a role or they have an H1B in the role who they want to sponsor for PERM status (Green Card) and the law requires them to post the job to prove there are no Americans available. The next most common reason is they have identified an internal candidate for the role but corporate policy requires all jobs to be posted externally to show they are looking for the best person. The next most common reason is HR conducting market research on compensation. In all cases, there is no intent to actually fill the role with an external hire.
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1. hyperpape ◴[26 Aug 25 19:30 UTC] No.45031137[source]▶
80% of what? There are 85,000 H1B visas per year, and vastly more job postings (and hirings of citizens) each year.
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2. LargeWu ◴[26 Aug 25 19:49 UTC] No.45031439[source]▶
85,000 new H1B's. But there are multiples of that already in the US who already hold visas. So, the actual number is in the hundreds of thousands, enough to make a serious impact on supply of labor in the tech sector.
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3. avbanks ◴[26 Aug 25 20:54 UTC] No.45032204[source]▶
That makes a massive difference, if true.
4. hyperpape ◴[27 Aug 25 10:26 UTC] No.45037679[source]▶
In this case, the relevant comparison is 85,000 net new H1B visas to the total of job postings, since the parent post seemed to be saying 80% of job postings are ghost postings from companies seeking H1B visas.

Needless to say, that doesn't make any sense.

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5. LorenPechtel ◴[27 Aug 25 19:25 UTC] No.45043921{3}[source]▶
No. Neither of us said 80% are H1-B. We were agreeing that 80% aren't actually obtainable jobs, but neither of us attempted to determine what percent is from what cause.
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6. hyperpape ◴[28 Aug 25 12:30 UTC] No.45051351{4}[source]▶
> The majority of the time, it is a company looking to sponsor an H1B for a role

You're right that I shouldn't have said 80%, but this still implies almost half of all job postings are ghost jobs from companies trying to hire H1-B visa workers.

It's still an insane claim.