Ghost jobs are postings for roles an employer is not actively trying to fill. From the outside you cannot prove intent, but you can check status: confirm the role is still on the employer's own job board, note when you first saw it, and look for details only a real search tends to include. Of 21 marketing roles we tracked to closure this fall, half came down within 37 days of their posted date.

Last verified October 29, 2026. Our sample is 21 U.S.-remote marketing roles we listed on the Remote Marketing Jobs board and later confirmed closed between September 26 and October 26, 2026, plus the 32 roles approved on our board on October 26, rechecked on each employer's applicant tracking system (ATS) feed on October 29. Closure dates are the day our checks found a role gone, not the day the employer closed it, so the durations are upper bounds. These are selected roles, mostly at software companies, so treat the pattern as directional. We cannot see whether anyone was hired. Bill statuses are as of October 29, 2026, and this is not legal advice.

What is a ghost job?

The Congressional Research Service defines ghost job postings as "online job postings for positions that do not exist, or that employers are not planning to fill immediately" (CRS, April 2025). Its report lists several causes:

  • Collecting resumes for hiring later
  • Signaling growth to employees or investors
  • Running a visible search when an internal candidate is already chosen
  • Plans that changed after the posting went up
  • Job boards copying a posting that the employer later removed from its own site

A ghost job is different from a scam. A scam uses a fake or impersonated employer to get money or personal data, and our guide to finding legitimate remote marketing jobs covers those warning signs. A ghost job usually sits on a real company's real careers page. It is also different from being ghosted, which is an employer going silent on you during a real search.

How common are ghost jobs?

Nobody has an official count. CRS says "there are no official statistics on the magnitude of ghost jobs," and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' job openings survey only counts roles an employer is actively recruiting for that could start within 30 days.

The best-known estimate comes from hiring software data. Greenhouse said in its 2024 State of Job Hunting report that in any given quarter, 18% to 22% of jobs posted on its platform are classified as ghost jobs. The post does not publish the classification rule, and the same report found that three in five candidates suspect they have encountered one.

CRS adds a fair caution: the firms behind figures like these market hiring tools and have released limited methodology. The honest reading is that ghost jobs are a real minority of postings, measured loosely, and not most of what you see.

What 21 closed marketing roles show about posting age

Every role on our board links to a live application on the employer's own ATS, and we recheck it there. When a role disappears from the employer's board and the application page shows "Job not found" or returns an error, we mark it closed. Here is how long the 21 closed roles had been up, counted from their posted date to the day we found them closed:

  • 30 days or less (7 roles): Builder Prime (13), ClickHouse (21), Dropbox (21), Pendo (23), Optro (25), Nebius (26), Stryker Digital (30)
  • 31 to 60 days (9 roles): Forerunner (31), OpenEd (32), Directive (36), Yondr (37), Jasper (40), Teleport (43), Pacaso (44), Runway (44), Jiga (57)
  • More than 60 days (5 roles): Coder (61), Testlio (87), Deepgram (94), Backblaze (143), Confluent (176)

The median was 37 days. Turnover is quick in the other direction too: of the 32 roles approved on October 26, one (Evolve's lifecycle marketing role, posted October 2) had closed by October 29.

Two roles show why age alone is a weak ghost signal. We retired Prefect's Senior Growth Marketing Manager and OpenRouter's Director, Growth Marketing on October 26 under our rule that drops roles posted more than 60 days ago. On October 29 both were still published on the employers' boards, at 64 and 97 days old. That rule, described on our how we verify page, is a freshness choice, not a finding that those roles are fake.

Our take: an old posting deserves a status check before you spend an evening on a tailored application. It does not deserve an automatic write-off. Senior and specialized marketing searches can run long, and five roles in our sample stayed open past 60 days before closing.

Posted dates can reset

The date on a listing is not always the date the search began.

  • Same job ID, new date. When we listed ActAI's VP, Marketing (hosted on the BJAK careers board), the employer's Ashby feed gave a publication date of September 1. On October 29, the same job ID showed October 26. Anything that reads that feed would see a role that looks three days old, though it has been published since at least September 1.
  • Same role, new URL. Optro's Director of Product Marketing was first published on September 21. That posting ID came down in mid-October, and the same role was reposted under a new URL dated October 15. Our board kept the September 21 date.

Neither example means the role is a ghost. Employers refresh postings for visibility or reopen a search that stalled. What it means is that "posted 2 days ago" can be wrong by weeks, so keep your own record of when you first saw a role.

How to check whether a marketing job is still open

This takes about five minutes and catches most dead listings.

  1. Find the role on the employer's own site. Go to the company's careers page, or its board on Greenhouse, Ashby or Lever. If it only exists on an aggregator, treat it as closed until you find the original. CRS notes that copied listings can outlive the employer's posting.
  2. Open the application page. "Job not found," a redirect to the general jobs list, or an error page means the application is closed, whatever the aggregator says.
  3. Check the date against your own notes. If you saw the same title at the same company a month ago and it now says "new," assume a repost and ask about it.
  4. Look for specifics. A named reporting line, a stated pay range, a defined scope and a start window take effort to write. Our guides to reading a marketing job's reporting line and reading a posted salary range show what good detail looks like. Vague postings are not automatically ghosts, but specific ones are harder to post on autopilot.
  5. Read LinkedIn's labels precisely. LinkedIn says "Actively reviewing applicants" means a recruiter reviewed at least one application in the past two weeks, and an automatic rejection counts as a review. "Responses managed off LinkedIn" means the job runs through an outside ATS and LinkedIn has no data, not that the job is inactive.
  6. Ask one direct question. If you reach a recruiter: "Is this role actively interviewing, and what is the target start date?" A real search usually has an answer.
  7. Time-box it. Apply, follow up once after a week or two, then put your energy into roles with clearer signals.

Ghost job laws: where they stand on October 29, 2026

We found no U.S. state law in force that requires employers to say whether a posting is for a real vacancy. Several bills would.

  • New York S8877. Would require employers with at least 100 employees, and third-party job sites, to state whether a posting is for a current vacancy and by when they intend to fill it, or that they are only collecting resumes. Filled roles would come down within two weeks, with fines starting at $2,500 per platform. Status: passed the Senate on April 28 and the Assembly on June 2, 2026; the Senate site does not show it delivered to or signed by the governor.
  • New Jersey S2136. Would require a vacancy statement with an estimated fill date, limit postings for anticipated roles, and require removal within two weeks of filling or 30 days of posting, whichever is later. Status: reported from the Senate Labor Committee on May 11, 2026 and referred to Budget and Appropriations.
  • California AB 1251. Would require private employers to state whether a posting is for a vacancy. Status: held in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 29, 2025, with no later action listed.
  • Pennsylvania HB 2321. A job posting requirements bill whose sponsor memo is titled "Banning Ghost Job Postings." Status: referred to the House Labor and Industry Committee on March 26, 2026.
  • Ontario, Canada. In force since January 1, 2026: employers with 25 or more employees must state whether a vacancy exists and tell interviewed applicants within 45 days whether a hiring decision was made (Ontario ESA guide). The rules do not cover postings for work performed outside Ontario (O. Reg. 476/24), so they rarely reach U.S.-remote roles.
  • Federal. CRS reported in April 2025 that no ghost job bill had been introduced in Congress. In June 2026, Senator Ruben Gallego sent letters asking the Labor Department, the FTC and the Bureau of Labor Statistics how they plan to address ghost jobs.

For now, the most reliable check is still the employer's own board. If New York's bill becomes law, large employers advertising there would have to put a fill date on the posting, which would make the first step of this check much faster. You can also skip the checking: every role on the current Remote Marketing Jobs board links to a live employer application that we recheck.

Frequently asked questions

What is a ghost job?

A ghost job is a posting for a role that does not exist or that the employer is not planning to fill soon. The Congressional Research Service lists causes such as collecting resumes for later, signaling growth, running a search for an internal candidate, changed plans, and job boards copying postings the employer already removed.

How common are ghost jobs?

There are no official statistics. Greenhouse's 2024 State of Job Hunting report said 18% to 22% of jobs posted on its platform in a given quarter are classified as ghost jobs. That figure comes from one platform's data, and the classification rule is not published.

How can I tell if a job posting is still open?

Find the role on the employer's own careers page or ATS board, then open the application. If the role is missing from the employer's board, or the application shows "Job not found" or an error, it is closed even if a job board still lists it. Keep a note of when you first saw the role, because posted dates can reset.

Is an old job posting a ghost job?

Not necessarily. Of 21 U.S.-remote marketing roles we tracked to closure between September 26 and October 26, 2026, the median came down 37 days after its posted date, but five stayed open more than 60 days before closing, including one at 176 days. Check an old posting's status before applying rather than skipping it.

Are ghost jobs illegal in the US?

We found no federal or state law in force that specifically bans ghost job postings as of October 29, 2026. New York's S8877, which would require vacancy and fill-date statements from employers with 100 or more employees, has passed both legislative chambers but has not been signed. Similar bills are pending in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and California's AB 1251 has been held in committee since August 2025.

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