Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026
Measured throughout 607,050 postings open on 15 applicant tracking systems, peruse immediately from all employer's own careers site. Age uses the date the director published, accessible on 95.0% of postings. The median open posting is 36 days old.
Computed September 23, 2026 from a clear that began August 24, 2026, 29 days earlier. Closure figures are bounded by that opening and say so below.
163,057
postings open additional than 90 days
28.3% of the dated postings. 94,106 have been up additional than 180 days.
36 days
median age of an open posting
Half the catalog was published additional lately than this, by the employer's own date.
14.6%
of closed postings came downward inside a week
13,013 of 88,895 closures in the final 30 days. A posting that disappears in days was real.
4.2%
of closed postings were reposted inside 30 days
3,915 of 94,333: identical employer, identical role, rear as a new posting following the close.
How old the open postings are
Every dated open posting, by the period since the director published it. The two correct hand bands are what this study calls stale.
Under 30 days45.1%260,305
By category
Hospitality postings sit the longest: 43.9% have been open additional than 90 days, median 65 days. Healthcare turns complete fastest at 19.7%.
| Category | Share complete 90 days | Median age | Open postings | Salary stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 43.9% | 65 days | 23,639 | 33.0% |
| Education | 37.4% | 56 days | 8,928 | 51.5% |
| Other | 35.3% | 48 days | 61,538 | 31.0% |
| Engineering | 32.3% | 46 days | 69,017 | 32.5% |
| Design | 31.5% | 47 days | 4,733 | 32.6% |
| Skilled trades | 29.5% | 37 days | 44,283 | 44.2% |
| Product | 29.4% | 44 days | 6,680 | 39.0% |
| Operations | 29.3% | 37 days | 40,041 | 34.4% |
| HR & people | 29.2% | 35 days | 6,323 | 32.0% |
| Logistics | 27.3% | 30 days | 28,881 | 48.6% |
| Customer support | 26.6% | 32 days | 10,023 | 46.1% |
| Marketing | 25.9% | 37 days | 12,263 | 34.6% |
| Sales | 25.5% | 34 days | 51,099 | 40.7% |
| Data | 23.6% | 34 days | 13,205 | 32.9% |
| Finance | 23.5% | 33 days | 20,517 | 35.1% |
| Legal | 22.0% | 34 days | 8,367 | 39.4% |
| Retail | 20.1% | 24 days | 41,677 | 51.0% |
| Healthcare | 19.7% | 29 days | 68,283 | 47.6% |
By applicant tracking system
The scheme an director posts through says a lot concerning how its postings age. Lever boards transport the largest old portion at 48.2%; Workday the smallest at 17.2%. Pinpoint, Personio, Y Combinator publish no posting date, so their age cannot be measured and is not guessed.
| System | Share complete 90 days | Median age | Open postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lever | 48.2% | 83 days | 1,871 |
| BambooHR | 47.9% | 79 days | 64,151 |
| Recruitee | 45.3% | 82 days | 596 |
| Teamtailor | 42.3% | 64 days | 45,698 |
| Rippling | 38.6% | 61 days | 16,339 |
| Workable | 38.2% | 51 days | 5,755 |
| Breezy | 36.7% | 55 days | 25,124 |
| Ashby | 34.8% | 54 days | 13,899 |
| Greenhouse | 32.1% | 47 days | 52,589 |
| SmartRecruiters | 27.0% | 35 days | 73,024 |
| UKG | 26.7% | 35 days | 51,130 |
| Workday | 17.2% | 26 days | 226,520 |
| Pinpoint | no posting date | no posting date | 15,691 |
| Personio | no posting date | no posting date | 11,018 |
| Y Combinator | no posting date | no posting date | 3,645 |
By country
The fifteen countries alongside the most open postings, by how their postings age and how frequently a pay is stated. The complete thirty are in the CSV.
| Country | Share complete 90 days | Median age | Open postings | Salary stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 26.2% | 34 days | 334,681 | 50.7% |
| United Kingdom | 26.8% | 36 days | 29,629 | 36.9% |
| Canada | 27.6% | 36 days | 21,977 | 48.8% |
| Germany | 31.7% | 54 days | 20,286 | 3.9% |
| France | 32.6% | 48 days | 19,030 | 15.9% |
| India | 25.9% | 33 days | 14,287 | 1.9% |
| Sweden | 40.9% | 51 days | 11,774 | 0.4% |
| Australia | 21.5% | 28 days | 7,872 | 14.7% |
| Spain | 34.3% | 50 days | 6,367 | 9.3% |
| Singapore | 26.3% | 37 days | 4,792 | 4.2% |
| Brazil | 27.4% | 39 days | 4,153 | 13.8% |
| Mexico | 29.7% | 41 days | 3,858 | 17.2% |
| Netherlands | 39.2% | 64 days | 3,525 | 27.9% |
| Poland | 28.8% | 42 days | 3,516 | 4.2% |
| Italy | 25.8% | 29 days | 3,446 | 42.7% |
The employers alongside the most open postings
The twenty employers alongside the most postings open on their own careers site, and how many of those have been up additional than 90 days. A lengthy open posting is not evidence of item on its own: several roles are evergreen, several employers employ in quantity all year. This array reports the charge and links all name to its postings so you can inspect them at the source. Employers appear complete 50 open postings only.
| Employer | Open postings | Share complete 90 days | Median age |
|---|---|---|---|
| O'Reilly Auto Parts | 14,320 | 45.6% | 77 days |
| CVS Health | 14,195 | 5.1% | 22 days |
| Lowe's | 12,225 | 0.0% | 22 days |
| TJX Companies | 10,157 | 14.0% | 22 days |
| Accenture | 4,270 | 3.4% | 13 days |
| Whataburger Restaurants | 4,184 | 83.9% | 239 days |
| JLL | 3,766 | 0.0% | 15 days |
| PACS Group | 2,786 | 1.1% | 22 days |
| AdventHealth | 2,778 | 0.0% | 9 days |
| Genuine Parts Company | 2,762 | 0.0% | 22 days |
| ABB | 2,757 | 5.2% | 21 days |
| Kohl's | 2,670 | 0.0% | 23 days |
| Curtiss-Wright | 2,667 | 0.0% | 23 days |
| Dick's Sporting Goods | 2,665 | 0.0% | 23 days |
| Hitachi | 2,649 | 0.0% | 26 days |
| Mercy | 2,634 | 0.0% | 28 days |
| American Logistics Authority | 2,597 | 100.0% | 308 days |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | 2,218 | 0.0% | 26 days |
| GE Vernova | 2,076 | 10.9% | 21 days |
| MUSC | 2,071 | 20.2% | 37 days |
Closures and reposts
postings removed from their employer's location in the final 30 days
14.6% came downward inside a week of publishing and 30.8% inside two.
median period from publishing to removal
Over postings that closed in the final 90 days. Ninety percent closed inside 113 days. We have watched for 29 days, so the true medians can lone be longer; this is a lesser bound.
of closed postings came rear inside 30 days
3,915 postings closed and the identical director published the identical function again. A additional 4,576 open postings were closed and reopened in place.
Definitions and method
StaleA posting the employer's own careers location has shown open for additional than 90 days, counted from the date the director published. This study never calls a sole posting a shade job. It reports rates.
RepostA posting that closes and comes rear inside 30 days as a new posting for the identical function at the identical employer, matched on the normalized heading and description.
Where the data comes fromUnlisted says the community APIs of the applicant tracking systems employers article through, commission by board, all few hours. Nothing is scraped from job boards and nothing is estimated. Every posting counted current was open on its employer's location whenever the study was computed.
What it cannot sayWhether an director that keeps a posting up is motionless interviewing, and how lengthy the identical postings remain on LinkedIn or Indeed following they depart the source. We lone see the source. Closure times are bounded by how lengthy we have been watching, and the study says so anywhere it prints one.
Quoting this report
Free to citation and reproduce alongside a nexus to this page. Suggested citation:
Unlisted, Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026. unlisted.careers/ghost-jobs/report/2026-09
Questions concerning the method, or a fig you desire cut differently: [email protected].
The job boards display you what was posted. Unlisted shows you what is motionless open on the employer's own site, and tells you whenever it final checked.
