Research · the Ghost Job Index
The Ghost Job Index: what Diogenes sees in real job postings
Aggregated, anonymous numbers from postings people chose to check with Diogenes. Nothing here is estimated, rounded up or padded.
Updated · 4 min read · by Sharif-Ali Asadullayev
The first Index isn't published yet
We publish the Index once Diogenes has checked at least 50 postings in a window, and a row only shows numbers when its group has at least 50 checks. Until then there is nothing to show, and we won't make a number up. Check back soon, or help it along by checking a posting.
Methodology
- What the numbers mean
- “Ghost” is Diogenes' judgement that a posting shows the signs of a ghost job (no real intent to hire) and no scam warning signs. “Scam” means it quoted at least one hard warning sign from the posting itself, such as a fee, a request for ID before an interview, or a crypto top-up.
- It's AI judgement, and it can be wrong
- Each verdict comes with a confidence level and the signals behind it. We have not confirmed any verdict with the employer, so read these as how often postings look like this, not as proven facts.
- Who is in the data
- People who chose to check a posting: mostly job seekers who were already suspicious of it, reached through our own channels. It is not a random sample of all job postings, and the shares are not the share of all jobs that are fake.
- What's excluded
- The built-in sample posting, and checks from our own devices. Countries are counted by connection, and sectors by the AI's reading of the posting.
- Minimum sample
- A number is published only when its group has at least 50 checks; below that the row says “not enough data yet”. The total is the real count, never rounded up.
- Privacy
- We store a country code and a few coarse facts per check. Never posting text, company names, resumes, IP addresses or anything that identifies a person. Only aggregates are published, as snapshots we release ourselves.
Cite this
GetDiogenes Ghost Job Index, October 2026, getdiogenes.com/research/ghost-job-index
Free to quote and reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0).