28.3% of open job postings have been up for more than 90 days

Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026Measured across 607,050 postings open on 15 applicant tracking systems, read directly from each employer's own careers site. Age uses the date the employer published, available on 95.0% of postings. The median open posting is 36 days old.Computed September 23, 2026 from a sweep that began August 24, 2026, 29 days earlier. Closure figures are bounded by that window and say so below.163,057postings open more than 90 days28.3% of the dated postings. 94,106 have been up more than 180 days.36 daysmedian age of an open postingHalf the catalog was published more recently than this, by the employer's own date.14.6%of closed postings came down within a week13,013 of 88,895 closures in the last 30 days. A posting that disappears in days was real.4.2%of closed postings were reposted within 30 days3,915 of 94,333: same employer, same role, back as a new posting after the close.How old the open postings areEvery dated open posting, by the time since the employer published it. The two right hand bands are what this report calls stale.Under 30 days45.1%260,30530 to 60 days17.1%98,47360 to 90 days9.5%54,85090 to 180 days12%68,951Over 180 days16.3%94,106By categoryHospitality postings sit the longest: 43.9% have been open more than 90 days, median 65 days. Healthcare turns over fastest at 19.7%.CategoryShare over 90 daysMedian ageOpen postingsSalary statedHospitality43.9%65 days23,63933.0%Education37.4%56 days8,92851.5%Other35.3%48 days61,53831.0%Engineering32.3%46 days69,01732.5%Design31.5%47 days4,73332.6%Skilled trades29.5%37 days44,28344.2%Product29.4%44 days6,68039.0%Operations29.3%37 days40,04134.4%HR & people29.2%35 days6,32332.0%Logistics27.3%30 days28,88148.6%Customer support26.6%32 days10,02346.1%Marketing25.9%37 days12,26334.6%Sales25.5%34 days51,09940.7%Data23.6%34 days13,20532.9%Finance23.5%33 days20,51735.1%Legal22.0%34 days8,36739.4%Retail20.1%24 days41,67751.0%Healthcare19.7%29 days68,28347.6%By applicant tracking systemThe system an employer posts through says a lot about how its postings age. Lever boards carry the largest stale share 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.SystemShare over 90 daysMedian ageOpen postingsLever48.2%83 days1,871BambooHR47.9%79 days64,151Recruitee45.3%82 days596Teamtailor42.3%64 days45,698Rippling38.6%61 days16,339Workable38.2%51 days5,755Breezy36.7%55 days25,124Ashby34.8%54 days13,899Greenhouse32.1%47 days52,589SmartRecruiters27.0%35 days73,024UKG26.7%35 days51,130Workday17.2%26 days226,520Pinpointno posting dateno posting date15,691Personiono posting dateno posting date11,018Y Combinatorno posting dateno posting date3,645By countryThe fifteen countries with the most open postings, by how their postings age and how often a salary is stated.

A long open posting is not proof of anything on its own: some roles are evergreen, some employers hire in volume all year. This table reports the rate and links every name to its postings so you can check them at the source. Employers appear above 50 open postings only.EmployerOpen postingsShare over 90 daysMedian ageO'Reilly Auto Parts14,32045.6%77 daysCVS Health14,1955.1%22 daysLowe's12,2250.0%22 daysTJX Companies10,15714.0%22 daysAccenture4,2703.4%13 daysWhataburger Restaurants4,18483.9%239 daysJLL3,7660.0%15 daysPACS Group2,7861.1%22 daysAdventHealth2,7780.0%9 daysGenuine Parts Company2,7620.0%22 daysABB2,7575.2%21 daysKohl's2,6700.0%23 daysCurtiss-Wright2,6670.0%23 daysDick's Sporting Goods2,6650.0%23 daysHitachi2,6490.0%26 daysMercy2,6340.0%28 daysAmerican Logistics Authority2,597100.0%308 daysBooz Allen Hamilton2,2180.0%26 daysGE Vernova2,07610.9%21 daysMUSC2,07120.2%37 daysClosures and reposts88,895postings removed from their employer's site in the last 30 days14.6% came down within a week of publishing and 30.8% within two.24 daysmedian time from publishing to removalOver postings that closed in the last 90 days. Ninety percent closed within 113 days. We have watched for 29 days, so the true medians can only be longer; this is a lower bound.4.2%of closed postings came back within 30 days3,915 postings closed and the same employer published the same role again. A further 4,576 open postings were closed and reopened in place.Definitions and methodStaleA posting the employer's own careers site has shown open for more than 90 days, counted from the date the employer published. This report never calls a single posting a ghost job. It reports rates.RepostA posting that closes and comes back within 30 days as a new posting for the same role at the same employer, matched on the normalized title and description.Where the data comes fromUnlisted reads the public APIs of the applicant tracking systems employers post through, board by board, every few hours. Nothing is scraped from job boards and nothing is estimated. Every posting counted here was open on its employer's site when the report was computed.What it cannot sayWhether an employer that keeps a posting up is still interviewing, and how long the same postings stay on LinkedIn or Indeed after they leave the source. We only see the source. Closure times are bounded by how long we have been watching, and the report says so wherever it prints one.Download the tablesEach table on this page as a CSV, with company rows linked to their catalog page.Quoting this reportFree to quote and reproduce with a link to this page. Suggested citation:Unlisted, Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026. unlisted.careers/ghost-jobs/report/2026-09Questions about the method, or a figure you want cut differently: [email protected] job boards show you what was posted. Unlisted shows you what is still open on the employer's own site, and tells you when it last checked.