Ghost Jobs Are Real. Here's the Tool Fighting Back.

Tired of applying to jobs and never hearing back? Same.

The rise of “ghost jobs” — job listings with no intention of actually hiring — is clogging job boards, wasting your time, and killing your confidence.

GhostJobs.io is a free platform that’s part watchdog, part research tool, and part survival kit for anyone navigating today’s broken hiring systems.

This isn’t another résumé-optimizer or job board clone. It’s built by job seekers, for job seekers.

The platform was co-founded by Anis Zellagui & Apework. Founders who’ve been burned by the same broken system that w're all experiencing. The platform is a push for honesty and accountability in hiring.

I connected with GhostJobs.io founder Anis and had some questions about the tool, the problem it’s trying to solve, and what comes next. Here’s the full Q&A.

What was your own job search experience like, and what pushed you to create GhostJobs.io?

In 2021, when I had barely 1 years of experience, recruiters flooded my inbox and landing interviews felt routine. Fast-forward to 2024: better résumé, stronger skills—yet silence. I’d apply, wait weeks, then discover the role was “no longer active.” On Reddit I met my co-founder, who’d hit the same wall. We realized it wasn’t us; it was the market. So we set out to build a tool—and a movement—that exposes the false signals baked into today’s hiring data.

Can you explain what a “ghost job” is in your own words — and how often you were running into them?

A ghost job is a posting the employer never intends to fill. Sometimes it’s lipstick for investors (“look how fast we’re growing!”), sometimes it’s résumé-harvesting, sometimes plain brand marketing. In my own 2024 search, roughly one in four postings fit the pattern. Investor studies peg the figure at 25–35 %, and community surveys inside GhostJobs.io echo that ratio: about one job in four is probably just smoke.

Why are ghost jobs a problem?

For job seekers, they’re mirages—hope that evaporates after hours of tailoring a résumé or prepping for an interview that never happens. At scale, they distort labour-market stats, inflating vacancy counts and misleading policymakers about the economy’s health. They also reward the worst kind of corporate opacity while punishing genuine applicants with stress, burnout, and lost income.

What does GhostJobs.io do that other job tools don’t?

GhostJobs.io merge crowdsourced flags with real-time data signals. Our Chrome extension lets users mark a listing as suspicious; our backend cross-checks hiring velocity, posting history, and employer disclosures to score the probability a job is real. The result is a colour-coded “ghost meter,” trend dashboards by company, and a public forum where applicants swap intel—transparency first, always.

Was the original goal just to help yourself, or did you always plan to make it public?

It started as a small community tool—a shared Google Sheet where a handful of friends logged sketchy postings. Within two weeks the sheet had 800 anonymous editors and our inbox was full of “Can I share this?” messages. That moment made the decision for us: if transparency is the mission, the platform has to be open by design.

What’s been the reaction from other job seekers so far?

The response has been a mix of curiosity and gratitude. Data-minded users dive straight into our live hiring-trend boards to see which companies are genuinely scaling; risk-averse seekers lean on the Ghost-Score filter to ditch shady listings before they waste a cover-letter; and a growing third group treats the site as a safe coffee-shop chat, swapping stories, flagging suspect posts, and celebrating real offers together. Different entry points, but the same verdict: “Finally, a tool that saves time and tells the truth.”

What’s your long-term goal for the project — a helpful tool, or something bigger?

The tool is the foot in the door. The endgame is a “truth layer” that sits on top of every job board—an open standard where postings carry a veracity badge, much like SSL locks on websites. When that badge is missing, applicants will think twice, and companies will need to earn it.

If you could change one thing about how companies hire, what would it be?

Honesty in every posting. If a role is evergreen, say so. If hiring is paused, flip the status to “on hold” instead of silently ghosting. Real humans—parents, students, mortgage-payers—organize their lives around these listings. Transparency costs nothing and buys immense goodwill.

What advice would you give other job seekers that want to build something to help job seekers combat this broken job market?

Start small and specific: pick one headache you face every day—no feedback loops, duplicate listings, pay secrecy—and prototype a tool that scratches that itch. Share it publicly on day one; transparency wins allies fast. Second, treat fellow applicants as co-developers, not “users”: their lived experiences will refine your features better than any A/B test. Last, aim for impact per applicant, not follower counts. If your script, dashboard, or Slack bot saves each person an hour of pointless clicking, you’re already shifting the market in the right direction.

Checkout: GhostJobs.io

👉Read more about ghost jobs: Ghost Jobs: Fake Listings, Real Devastation

Disclaimer:

The content on this site is for informational and commentary purposes only and reflects the author's personal opinions. It does not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice. All data sources are cited where applicable. Stories shared by users or sourced from public forums are anonymized and presented for illustrative purposes only.