Bogus! Why Do Staffing Agencies Post Fake Jobs?

If you’re on the job market, then you’re going to encounter fake jobs sooner or later. They are posted all over the internet. Even on reputable job posting sites are likely to have fake jobs listed on them.

One of the most common places you’ll find fake jobs is on staffing agency websites. It’s common practice for staffing agencies and recruitment firms to post fake jobs. But why?

Why would a legitimate staffing agency need to post fake jobs? Is it even legal? Well, recruiters and basically everyone who works in the staffing industry gets these questions, so it’s a common question.

Let’s break down the entire issue step by step and see what exactly is going on and why anyone would post fake jobs.

What’s The Point of Posting Fake Jobs?

So, if there is no job, what’s the point in the posting? Good question.

It all boils down to access. Staffing agencies want access to your resume. They want a constant influx of resumes.

The important thing to understand is that the owners of staffing agencies never do recruiting. They hire recruiters to work for them and source resumes. But, it costs money to pay recruiters to head hunt candidates. It even costs money to pay recruiter to review resumes.

What it doesn’t cost, or at least it doesn’t cost much, is to post jobs. That’s why staffing agencies post fake jobs. It doesn’t cost much to post and they get flooded with resumes.

Those resumes then go straight into the agencies database. Some agencies even sell that data to other agencies.

It’s a low cost, high return action. Agencies can post a job for a role, get hundreds of resumes, and then later when they need to source for role, they will have those resumes at hand.

Remember, recruiters don’t post fake jobs, agency owners and operators do.

The Race to Get Resumes

The name of the game in staffing is speed. Recruiters need to be fast in order to find people. Staffing agency owners need to have the fastest response time.

It’s a simple money problem. Staffing agencies are known throughout the business world to be extremely cheap. It’s just cheaper to post adds then hire more recruiters to headhunt.

The more resumes a staffing agency has in their database, the faster they can locate someone for an open job request.

This is why you routinely see staffing agencies posting jobs every single month. They need to keep fresh resumes in their database.

Are All the Posted Jobs Fake?

So, what’s the deal, are all of the jobs posted on staffing agencies fake?

Well, not often. I don’t want to speak on every agency, since there is such a wide range of staffing agencies out there.

Normally the staffing agency will post a real job or at least a job that they might have. The staffing agency won’t advertise a job in a field that they are not covering. That would be a waste of time for them.

Remember, the executives who run staffing agencies are not concerned about wasting your time, but they certainly are not going to waste their own.

That’s why you will never see a fake job posting for an IT Security Advisor on a Staffing agencies website if they specialize in manual labor jobs. It would be of no use for the agency to solicit resumes from IT professionals if all they staff are manual labor workers.

What is the most likely scenario is that the jobs are similar to what the agency staffs for. So, if you see an ad for a Java programmer, then they work with clients who request Java developers. While there might not be a Java developer role currently it is something that the agency works with.

Is This Legal?

Is posting fake jobs legal? Well, yes and no. There’s a fine line as to what is legal and what is not.

Basically, if you’re applying to a job on an agency website, rest assured that they’ve likely run things by their lawyers. Staffing agencies all have legal teams on retainer. Some staffing agencies are even run by lawyers.

However, if you’re applying to some job on craigslist your bigger concern is who you are dealing with. Jobs posted online are often fraudulent and lead directly to scam artists.

Employers are required to post salaries in their job postings now in certain cities, but that does not mean that the job is real. All that means is that the staffing agency is

How Can You Tell Fake Jobs from Real Jobs?

It’s difficult. One of the reasons that staffing agencies get such a bad rep is that there is so much deception, dishonesty, and simply poor ethics involved.

Recruiters tend to get the brunt of the negative press, and it’s understandable. But it all comes from the top. The lies about salary, the deception involved in pay rates, job details being withheld, all of these come straight from the top.

If the agency is run by ethical people, then recruiters will act accordingly. However, as anyone who has worked in staffing will attest, the industry unfortunately attracts some of the most dishonest and devious people in the business world.

The best method is to check up on the agency and see what sort of reviews they have online. While that’s not foolproof, it is better than nothing. Remember, though, that staffing agencies routinely pay reputation management firms to boost their ratings on review sites like Yelp and Glassdoor.

Another method would be to connect directly with the recruiters on LinkedIn. If you check out the staff on LinkedIn you will get a better sense of the type of roles they recruit for. I advise messaging a recruiter directly on LinkedIn.

What I advise people to do is to check out not just individual recruiters, but more importantly the company and see how long the recruiters last. Staffing agencies that have high turnover tend to be staffing agencies run by disreputable owners. So, it’s more likely that the jobs posted are fake.

While staffing has a high turnover compared to other sectors, if you notice that the executive level is stable, but their recruiters tend to last a short time, then you can be sure that the agency is a bottom tier one and is scalping pay, misleading their staff, and generally running a poor ship.

See if the recruiters are posting related jobs on their LinkedIn account. Because if a recruiter is posting something, it’s real. As mentioned, the only people who post fake jobs are agency owners and their executives. Recruiters are too busy to waste their time with fake jobs.

Should You Trust a Staffing Agency That Posts Fake Jobs?

My thoughts? Don’t trust any staffing agency. In general, they are not trustworthy.

This might seem like an odd statement coming from someone who has been involved in creating several executive search agencies and has worked hand in hand with dozens of major staffing firms nationwide.

But that’s all the more reason to listen. The truth of the matter is that staffing agencies profit off of your labor. They are the middlemen of the workforce. Taking either a cut of your paycheck, hour by hour, or else paying you less than the market price.

You can trust individual recruiters, and that’s what I have found to be the best path through the hazardous workforce. Use LinkedIn to connect with Recruiters, if they burn you once, write them off. If they take care of you and are honest, keep the relationship open.