Name: Ghost jobs.

Age: Old, but increasingly common.

Appearance: The most terrifying thing on Earth.

Happy Halloween! I’m all for keeping the undead in gainful employment. I’m afraid this is a far scarier proposition than that.

Paying people to dress up as ghosts? Even scarier. Shall I just tell you? A ghost job is when a company advertises a job that isn’t real.

That doesn’t sound very scary. Maybe not as an isolated incident, but a survey has revealed just how widespread the practice is. It’s estimated that a whopping 40% of companies posted a fake job listing this year.

So if I’m applying for a job … It’s quite possible that you’re focusing your time and effort on something that doesn’t exist. Even worse, 85% of companies that contacted applicants regarding their fake jobs say they also fake-interviewed them.

Wow, that really is terrifying. Why do they do it? Spite? Well, there are a variety of factors. Perhaps they are doing it to trick their existing employees into thinking their workload will soon be lightened by a new hire.

Evil. Or perhaps they just want the market to think their business is so successful that they are in an intense period of growth.

Also evil. One other suggestion is that, by flooding employment sites with fake jobs, their real employees will start to see themselves as more replaceable than they are, and choose to work harder for less money so that they can keep their jobs.

God, what’s the point of anything any more? Try to stay positive. Some ghost jobs are posted to attract interest and collect resumes for future hiring.

Yes, but I need a job now. How charmingly naive of you. Now get to the back of the line.

Can anything be done? Sort of. A cottage industry has sprung up, advising people on how to spot adverts for ghost jobs, which in itself feels like a damning indictment of humankind.

So how do we spot them? Basically, try to look for the date the advert was posted. If there isn’t one, that’s a huge red flag. Similarly, if the advert is a week or so old when you see it, that isn’t a great sign either.

Any other advice? Try to find the direct telephone number of the hiring manager to check that the job is real. Even if that number isn’t listed. Even if you have to guess their extension. Because this demonstrates initiative, and that’s what employers like.

They like to make people spend hours jumping through millions of impossible hoops to secure a job that might not even be real? I told you it was terrifying.

Do say: “The system is rigged against us.”

Don’t say: “How do I get a job writing listings for fake jobs?”