Post about ‘phantom job vacancies’ frustration goes viral on LinkedIn

‘Job searching is emotionally draining and this only gives us false hope’

Job searching is emotionally draining and companies should stop leaving ‘phantom job vacancies’ on platforms, say jobseekers (Getty Images)

A post on LinkedIn calling on employers to remove “phantom job vacancies” if they are not hiring via the platform has gone viral, as jobseekers call for more “empathy and respect”.

Brigette Hyacinth, an author and keynote speaker based in Trinidad and Tobago, expressed her frustration with companies that leave job vacancies online even if they are not actively hiring, describing it as a “complete waste of our time”.

In an open letter, she wrote: “Dear Companies, please remove job vacancies posted if you are currently not hiring. It’s a complete waste of our time preparing and sending out resumes for ‘phantom jobs’.

“Job searching is emotionally draining and this only gives us false hope. Leaving these postings up just to collect resumes is not cool.

“Put yourself in our shoes,” she added. “Just be honest and transparent. Only advertise for live jobs. Show empathy and respect and we look forward to one day to work for such an organisation as yours. Sincerely, Jobseekers.”

Hyacinth added in a comment: “It’s time to put back the ‘HUMAN’ in Human Resources!”

More than 11,600 people from all over the world reacted to Hyacinth’s post on LinkedIn, with hundreds of comments agreeing that companies should stop giving jobseekers “false hope” by leaving vacancies for jobs that don’t exist up on search platforms.

One person wrote: “What’s the point of posting job vacancies that don’t exist? You put false hope out there for people who want to join your company.

“If I saw a posting for a company I had my heart set on working for and found out they weren’t hiring, I would be upset for wasting y time applying for a position that no longer exists. And I would look at their hiring staff as inefficient for not removing the job post once it’s been filled.”

Some people revealed that they had applied for “ghost” job openings and were interviewed, only for their ideas to be “stolen” and the jobseeker left in the dark.

A recruiter commented on the post and advised jobseekers to check a company’s website for job openings rather than using third-party job search platforms, which she said employers “have no control over”.

Kristen Fife wrote: “Employers have no control over the jobs – they are scraped off our websites (unless they are listed as sponsored.

“Usually once a job is filled internally, it closes on the employers career website. That is always where you want to check.”

It comes after new data showed that the number of job vacancies in the UK surpassed pre-pandemic levels in the three months to June.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there are 862,000 job openings between April and June, 77,500 higher compared to the first three months of 2020.

Chris Gray, director at recruitment firm Manpower UK, told the BBC: “I think what we’re seeing is that we’re already in a tight labour market. Employers are already having to be creative.

“But some are also a little bit anxious, maybe desperate, and advertising the same job more than once, so we’ve got to be mindful of some of those inflated numbers.”