WASHINGTON – Applying for jobs can be time-consuming, so it’s maddening when applicants hear about “ghost jobs” – listings for positions that don’t exist.

A survey earlier this year by the career site Resume Builder found 40% of hiring managers said their companies had posted fake jobs.

Fake openings can create the impression a company is growing, signal to overloaded employees that help is on the way, make workers feel replaceable or collect resumes to keep on file.

U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, has been investigating the issue after a constituent complained that companies are seeking more and more information from applicants they intend to ignore.

“It is frustrating that Americans spend considerable time and effort applying for positions, only to discover that the job does not exist,” Self said in a news release. “We must ensure that workers have access to genuine employment opportunities and are not left in limbo.”

Self raised the issue in a letter to the Department of Labor and asked how the practice could skew unemployment figures and labor demand projections – statistics that often drive policy decisions in Washington.

In a return letter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics told Self the data it collects about job openings is not based on online job postings and would be unaffected by ghost jobs.

The department did not respond to emailed questiond about whether it is considering steps to investigate fake job postings.

Ghost jobs skeptic

Not everyone believes talk of ghost jobs reflects reality.

Tim Sackett, chief executive of HRU Tech., a national technology staffing firm, described it as a “completely made-up phenomenon.”

Sackett said ghost jobs get attention because of eye-catching surveys some career service companies have released, combined with the too common experience of job candidates hearing nothing after applying.

Sometimes jobs have already been filled or eliminated, he said, or the company doesn’t have the bandwidth to respond to everyone who applies.

Applicants are being “ghosted,” but the jobs in question are real, Sackett said by email.

“It happens the majority of our time in our industry and it’s a problem,” Sackett said of applicants being ghosted. “Companies shouldn’t be treating candidates this way, but often there are capacity issues when you get hundreds and sometimes thousands of people applying for jobs.”

Continuing scrutiny

The Resume Builder survey and others, including one by MyPerfectResume, have spawned coverage by national news outlets and captured the attention of Capitol Hill lawmakers, even though posting openings without intending to fill them isn’t illegal.

The constituent who reached out to Self said some job posting services charge a subscription fee that incentivizes employers to leave postings up even if they have little interest in filling them.

If a company is paying a monthly fee to post up to 10 job openings, for example, they might as well post 10 jobs. If a position does open, the company will have a handy pile of resumes to sift through.

Self is looking to the House Committee on Small Business and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to learn more about the situation.

“The ghost jobs issue really boils down to honesty and transparency among these large online recruiting hubs. Many are more focused on data mining than actually recruiting,” Self said in a statement.

“We need to look at finding the right balance of consumer protection regulations and deregulations,” he said.