A vacancy lifecycle and identity specification.
Subject to evidence sufficiency, review, and publication authorization.
Research projectWIL-PROJ-VQ-001
Vacancy Quality & Hiring Demand
When an employer posts a job, how reliably does that posting represent a real and current hiring need?
Open for contribution
Work in progress. This is a founding WIL research project, not a published finding. Its questions, methods, and expected outputs have not completed WIL editorial authorization and should not be cited as findings.
Objective
Develop lifecycle-aware methods that distinguish postings, unique vacancies, hiring activity, filled positions, and employer intent without treating those concepts as interchangeable.
Why it matters
Job postings may be duplicated, evergreen, delayed, cancelled, or disconnected from a current vacancy. Posting volume alone cannot establish vacancy quality or actual hiring demand.
Current work
- Defining vacancy lifecycle states, identity rules, and evidence requirements.
- Specifying reconciliation tests across employer behavior and other demand indicators.
- Documenting where available evidence remains insufficient for a public classification.
Research approach
- Preserve posting and employer-source lineage before entity or lifecycle resolution.
- Validate classifications against observed hiring behavior where permitted and available.
- Use terms such as ghost job only where a measurable definition and validation design support them.
Expected outputs
A validation protocol for demand and vacancy-quality measures.
Subject to evidence sufficiency, review, and publication authorization.
A research note only after evidence, review, and publication authorization are sufficient.
Subject to evidence sufficiency, review, and publication authorization.