A candidate spends time tailoring their resume and completing an assessment, only to hear nothing. The job stays posted for months, despite there being no approved opening.
Now reverse it. A hiring team runs a candidate through four rounds, extends an offer, and watches them use it to negotiate a raise where they already work.
Both sides of the hiring market have gotten used to going through the motions, and it costs both sides time and money. For some employers, it could soon mean a fine.
How Common Are Ghost Jobs?
Ghost jobs are becoming more common than many realize. The Texas Attorney General’s office, citing independent research, puts ghost listings at between a fifth and a third of online job postings. A widely reported 2024 ResumeBuilder survey found 40% of hiring managers said their company had posted a role it did not intend to fill, and about 30% leave filled or inactive listings up.
An analysis of Greenhouse postings reported by the Wall Street Journal found 19% of jobs advertised in the second quarter of 2026 showed no meaningful hiring activity after applications arrived. That does not make all of them ghost jobs, but it explains the decline in candidate trust.
The Legal Picture Changed This Year
As of early September 2026, no U.S. state has a ghost-jobs law on the books, but New York is one signature away.
New York’s S8877 passed the Assembly on June 2 and is awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s action. The bill would apply to employers with 100 or more employees and third-party job posting platforms. Covered postings would have to clearly state whether the job is expected to be filled within 90 days, cannot be filled before a specified date, or has no actual vacancy.
Once a position is filled, the posting would have to come down within two weeks. Violations could cost $2,500 per platform where the ad appears, increasing to $5,000 if the issue is not corrected within 30 days.
Pennsylvania is taking a broader approach. Its “Ghost Job Postings Prevention Act” would address hiring timelines, salary ranges, and AI disclosures, with penalties of up to $25,000 per applicant for selling candidate data.
Similar bills are moving in New Jersey, California, and Kentucky. And in July, the Texas Attorney General opened an investigation into a major online job platform over whether it profited from ghost listings sold to paying subscribers.
The message is getting harder to ignore: keeping a job posted when there is no real job behind it may soon carry more than reputational costs
Why This Matters to Utah Employers
Utah has no ghost-jobs legislation, and there is no sign one is imminent. Most pending bills apply based on where the position or posting sits rather than where the company is headquartered, so a Utah employer advertising a remote or out-of-state role may well be covered under that state’s legislation.
The reputational cost can affect how candidates view your company. Utah’s professional communities are small, and the accounting, legal, and executive circles are tightly networked. A company known for postings that never close loses candidates long before it risks a fine.
The Other Half of the Problem: Ghost Candidates
Hiring teams see the same problem from the other side: candidates who interview well, clear every interview round, yet never intended to make a change.
A familiar strategy is the leverage play. A strong performer with no real intention of moving runs a search, collects an offer, then walks it into their manager’s office and accepts a counteroffer. Your process becomes the instrument they used to get a raise.
The other version is simpler: people vanish. SHRM found 41% of organizations facing recruiting difficulty reported an increase in candidates ghosting them, and a 2025 LiveCareer survey found one in four job seekers admit to going silent mid-process, most often because they accepted something else. Gartner reported 48% of candidates accepted their most recent offer in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 85% two years earlier.
The cost is clear. A “leverage candidate” who declines at the offer stage sets you back in the process, and by then your second choice may have already taken another job.
Spotting a Leverage Play Before the Offer
You cannot eliminate this risk, but you can surface it early.
- Ask what would keep them. Ask directly what their current employer would have to do to retain them. A candidate with a real reason to leave answers immediately. A leverage candidate hesitates, or talks only about money.
- Get past the pay answer. Compensation is rarely the actual driver. If it is the only stated reason, treat the motivation as unresolved.
- Walk through the resignation. Ask how they plan to resign and how their manager will react. People who have thought it through are serious.
- Do not go quiet after the final round. The gap between the last interview and an offer is when a counteroffer gets arranged.
Understanding candidate motivation is a core part of the search partner’s role, not something discovered at the offer stage. When managing executive search, PrincePerelson ensures that counteroffer scenarios are all thoroughly discussed with the candidate well before a client becomes invested.
Cleaning Up Your Own Side
Four habits account for most of the ways these postings stay visible.
- Audit what is live. Pull every active posting on your careers page and every board carrying your ads.
- Post funded reqs only, and establish a takedown policy. Two weeks from offer acceptance, with one person responsible.
- Be honest about pipeline postings. If you are collecting resumes for later, say so. The pending laws would require it anyway.
- Close the loop with people you interviewed. A short decision email costs nothing and is written into several bills.
If the real need is capacity rather than a permanent hire, temporary and contract staffing can fill the gap without adding a permanent position. If you are mainly testing the market, a search partner can tell you what compensation is attracting candidates and who is available without posting a job at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a ghost job?
A listing that does not correspond to an actual open position, or that stays posted when the employer has no immediate intention of filling it: roles already filled, reqs never funded, and postings used only to collect resumes.
What is a ghost candidate?
Someone who goes through a hiring process without a real intention of taking the job, most often to secure a counteroffer or a raise where they already work. The term also covers candidates who stop responding mid-process or accept an offer and never show up.
Are ghost job postings illegal?
Not yet in the United States. No state has enacted one, though New York’s bill awaits the governor’s signature and several states have measures pending. Deceptive postings can already draw scrutiny under existing consumer protection and labor statutes, so employers with questions about their exposure should talk to employment counsel.
How do you stop a candidate from taking a counteroffer?
You cannot prevent it outright, but you can reduce it. Establish early what is driving the move and whether pay is the real issue, walk through how they plan to resign, keep the process short, and stay in contact between the final interview and the start date. If compensation is the only reason given for leaving, expect a counteroffer.
Getting Ahead of the Change
Hiring transparency is following the path pay transparency took: a few states move first, employers adapt, and it becomes standard everywhere. Cleaning up your postings protects you from whatever passes. Testing motivation properly protects the time and effort you would otherwise spend on someone who was always going to stay put.
Want a candidate slate vetted for genuine motivation, and market intelligence without the responsibility and cost of a posted role? Talk with our team about what your next hire will actually take.