The employer may post fake job opening listings for many reasons, such as inflating statistics about their industries, protecting the company from discrimination lawsuits, fulfilling requirements by human-resources departments, identifying potentially promising recruits for future hiring, pacifying existing employees that the company is looking for extra help, or retaining desirable employees.
[4][5][6][7][8] There is a rising trend[9] in employers promising remote work as "bait,"[10] and it underscores the relative power of the employers in the job market.
[2] According to the career coaching service SamNova, a fake job listing can often be spotted as one that is either continuously open or repeatedly posted.
A survey conducted by Clarify Capital has concluded that many companies and government entities have tricked job seekers with fake ads without the intent of hiring.
[4] In 2025 a Greenhouse study showed one in five job postings is fake or never filled.