Proposal to Ban Ghost Jobs

I think realistically the only way you could enforce this is to legally required registration of job adverts with the government (you register the advert, you receive an ID; anyone advertising jobs without a valid ID is heavily fined), and then also require companies to register the outcome of the advert (internal hire, external hire, withdrawn, etc.).

Then it would be possible to actually identify suspicious behaviour, and you could publish stats about companies' hiring practices so candidates can avoid them etc.

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1. befictious ◴[26 Aug 25 19:36 UTC] No.45031241{3}[source]▶

>>45031150 #

then it would just be like real estate with off market listings where companies have a black market hiring pool and then just do the legal loophole steps of registering before "officially" posting and immediately hiring their desired candidate... which would probably have the shady side effect of making the policy "look efficient" without actually solving the job search problem.

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2. azemetre ◴[26 Aug 25 20:00 UTC] No.45031610[source]▶

>>45031241 (TP) #

For this analogy to hold, wouldn't there have to be some way to withhold all people from applying to a job? Why would a company want to do this if it just increases the cost of hiring? What is the benefit to paying more for a workforce when you can just hire people normally.

The alternative could be like a $2000 fine per listing violation. To make it worthwhile to enforce, offer half the fine as a tax credit that can be claimed anonymously after an investigation.

3. IshKebab ◴[26 Aug 25 20:51 UTC] No.45032173[source]▶

>>45031241 (TP) #

I'm unfamiliar with off market real estate listings (not a thing in the UK). Can you describe what you mean more?

The point is if a company fills 80% of its job postings with internal hires then that's highly suss and can be investigated. I don't delaying advertising would change that?

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