# Ghost Jobs Statistics — 2026

Data through June 2026.

In our pool of 204,223 US tech & professional
postings, 20.9% are recycled — the same
title+company combination re-posted three or more times under different IDs.
We measure observed posting behavior, not employer intent.

## Our data (behavioral)

- Recycled posting share (3+ recycled title+company combos): 20.9%
- Recycled postings (count): 42,783
- Combos posted 5-9 times: 1,813
- Combos posted 10+ times: 428
- Most-recycled ATS host: brightvisiontechnologies.applytojob.com (92.3% recycled, n=891)

## Tiered definitions (never one blended number)

- Stale: a single posting left open well past a typical hiring cycle.
- Pipeline: an evergreen req a company keeps open to collect resumes.
- Recycled: the same title+company re-posted under new IDs (what we measure: 20.9%).
- Likely-ghost: a posting with no detectable hiring activity (industry research, below).

## Industry research (external — opinion vs measurement)

- Greenhouse: ~18-22% of postings showed no hiring activity in their data.
- Hunter Ng (arXiv working paper): up to ~21% of postings may be 'ghost' jobs.
- Resume-Builder-style employer surveys report higher numbers, but these are
  self-reported opinion polls, not measured posting behavior — treat with caution.

## How to read these numbers

Repost behavior is a measured fact in our data; 'ghost rate' headlines from
surveys are not. We never call a specific job 'fake' from salary or wording
alone. The honest, citable number from our pool is the recycled-posting share.

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Source: SoviaJobs Job Market Research, June 2026.
Free to use with citation + a link to https://www.soviajobs.com/market-research.
Salary figures are platform-estimated posted ranges (posted or estimated),
not employer-disclosed pay. Corpus is tech & professional roles.