Ghost jobs, scam listings, pipeline plays: Why is LinkedIn full of postings that go nowhere?

💼 Why are there so many job postings on LinkedIn that seem fake?

In numbers: Resume Builder survey

Not all fakes are created equal

“Fake job posting” covers at least three different things, and they’re not equally deceptive. Anthony Guanio

A scam posting is simpler (and worse):

Nada Maher, a talent management supervisor, gave us the clearest example of the third category.

The data (or lack thereof)

Beyond Resume Builder’s survey, most of the widely repeated numbers on this topic don’t hold up to a source check. per the FTC

Blame the pipeline, not the plan

Ask why a company would keep a dead listing up, and the honest answer — when we got one — pointed to volume, not deception.

Both recruiters we spoke with independently named the same exception: agencies.

Asked directly who benefits from a posting staying live once there’s no real intent to hire, neither recruiter could name anyone.

A slower market, a bigger haystack

None of this is new, but the conditions around it have gotten sharper. NBC News

The scam side of things

A ghost job at least has a real company behind it. NBC News

The signs are more mechanical than a ghost job’s, and easier to check. lays out in detail

LinkedIn itself began requiring verified workplace emails for recruiter and executive titles in September 2025

The clearest internal fix our sources described wasn’t a new law or a LinkedIn policy — it was a system.