Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026

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

Measured 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.

163,057

postings open more than 90 days

28.3% of the dated postings. 94,106 have been up more than 180 days.

36 days

median age of an open posting

Half the catalog was published more recently than this, by the employer's own date.

14.6%

of closed postings came down within a week

13,013 of 88,895 closures in the last 30 days.…