Creative Commons - cartoon of a document titled" job description" with a magnifying glass over it

One of the most often-asked questions during economic downturns I hear is "I applied for a job over a month ago; why is it still open?"

Before I drill down into the possible reasons why a job you applied to weeks/months ago still may appear to be open, I want to refer y'all to my article on "Timing Really Is Everything". Especially in this climate, you need to understand that the early bird catches the proverbial worm.

I've had hundreds of conversations the last 6-10 months with my industry peers about the quality of applicants, and the general consensus is that MAYBE, if they are lucky, 15%-20% of the applicants are QUALIFIED and it seems to be skewing closer to 10% overall. And, with the economy so precarious, hiring managers are being EXTREMELY conservative with the jobs they ARE filling (mission critical) and demanding candidates that absolutely meet their qualifications - because they CAN.

It's an employer's market, folks. Last year it was a jobseeker's market.

The reason I bring this up is because recruiters have MORE resumes to read, with FEWER qualified candidates. They are being overwhelmed, and they want to to get the most "bang for their buck" with their time.

If they can read 100 resumes in an hour, and only 1-2 of those resumes are qualified, then they need to read 100 more for one more qualified candidates, then you - as the job qualified job seeker - need to be in the first few hundred resumes, or chances are you going to be left languishing in the queue while phone screens and interviews take place.

So, keeping that in mind, let's look at why the job posting you applied to seems to still be open a month later.

I am going to tell you: ALWAYS LOOK ON THE EMPLOYER CAREERS SITE to see if a job IS open.

• The employer may have multiple openings for the same role; it is much easier to open one at a time than to open, say, six all at once and try and juggle the same applicants or different applicants across all of them.
• Job posting times are generally for one month on paid platforms (that would be LinkedIn and any job board). It will close automatically at the end of that time frame. Most employers don't touch it unless they are renewing it. (This could include "this job is no longer accepting applications" messages on LinkedIn.)
• Job openings are generally left open until someone ACTUALLY STARTS. The process of having a signed offer letter and completed background check literally starts the transition from "applicant" to "employee". The databases used are different, and once a recruiter hits the "hired" workflow in the ATS, it automatically closes the requisition out. *Until that stage, most recruiters will continue to consider new applicants, and hopefully disposition them out as they come. But in any situation, there is usually a final action to close out all candidates with a mass email.
• During the offer/background check process, the candidate needs to be able to log into their account to fill out the documents, so the role remains open to allow that.
• The role could be on "pause" - it isn't closed, but for some reason the recruiter or hiring manager isn't looking at resumes (and this could include people on the interview team being on PTO- including the hiring manager or the recruiter). It could also be part of an evaluation period to see if they really do need that role now.
• For high turnover jobs (ie retail sales, fast food restaurants) the role may always be open because there is always a need to fill, or the job is part of a "talent community", but you did not actually read that or know what it meant (it is a pool of candidates that have expressed an interest in working for that employer in that role or a similar one), or it was not labeled as such.
• The organization is going through funding rounds and needs to show investors that they are growing - even if they are on a pause.
• The TITLE is the same, but it is actually a different budgeted position - you would need to compare the requisition (job) number/url if there is one. They may be slightly (or even substantially different) jobs in different groups but share the same title.

If you have seen the same role open for longer than a month on the employer's career page and you have already applied, it is safe to assume you did not get the job. You can try to reach out to the recruiter (or a recruiter) to ask if it is still open, and if you are still being considered. Often that will prompt the recruiter to send decline mails if for some reason they have not gotten around to it. Not ideal, but a lot of job seekers need actual closure.