28% Of Job Posts Are Over 90 Days Old. Your Teen Is Applying Anyway.

Your teen applied to twelve jobs online this month. They heard back from one, and it was an automated email.

Before anyone decides they are doing something wrong, look at a report that hit the Hacker News front page this week. A job data site called Unlisted checked 607,050 postings on employers' own career sites, across 15 hiring systems. It found that 28.3 percent had been open for more than 90 days. The median posting had been up for 36 days.

Some of those long-open posts are real jobs that are hard to fill. Some are always open because the company hires all year. And some are what job seekers call ghost jobs: listings for roles that are not being actively filled.

For a teenager on a first job search, this matters. It changes where they should look, how they should apply, and how they should feel when the inbox stays empty.

A ghost job is a posting that stays up even though no one is really hiring for it right now.

There are several reasons it happens. A company might want a stack of resumes ready for later. A hiring budget might be frozen. A manager might forget to take the post down. Or the company might like looking like it is growing.

A 2025 report from MyPerfectResume, covered by HR Dive, compared job openings with actual hires using federal data and found a gap of roughly 30 percent most months since 2021. In June 2025, for example, employers reported 7.4 million openings but made 5.2 million hires.

The same report was careful to say that not every unfilled role is fake. Some jobs are hard to fill, and some are posted all the time because workers leave often. That nuance is important for teens, as you will see.

Teens are already starting from behind in the job market.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July 2026, the peak month for summer work, 36.5 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 had a job. For young adults ages 20 to 24, it was 67.5 percent. The teen rate has fallen a long way since its 1978 peak of 60.1 percent.

So teens are competing for fewer openings, often with little work history, and many are applying online to the same big-company postings everyone else sees. If more than a quarter of those postings have been open for three months, a lot of teen applications are going into quiet inboxes.

That is not a reason to give up. It is a reason to aim better.

Here is a twist worth explaining to your teen, because it teaches them to read data carefully.

In the Unlisted report, hospitality postings stayed open the longest. 43.9 percent had been open more than 90 days, with a median age of 65 days.

But the MyPerfectResume analysis found that hospitality and construction had the smallest gap between openings and hires. In those industries, hires tended to match or even beat openings.

Put those together and a picture forms. Many restaurant, cafe and hotel postings stay up for months because those businesses hire all the time. Workers come and go, so the post never really closes. For a teen, an old posting at a busy restaurant may be one of the most real openings on the board.

Unlisted said this directly in its own report: a long-open posting is not proof of anything by itself. The lesson for your teen is to ask what kind of business posted it before deciding it is a ghost.

Teach your teen to look for these signs before spending time on an application.

1. Vague role. No clear duties, no schedule, no location details.

1. No pay range, especially in states where pay ranges are required in postings.

1. Reposted again and again with the same wording.

1. The company has recently announced a hiring freeze or layoffs.

1. No way to reach a person, only a form.

None of these prove anything alone. Two or three together mean it is probably worth moving on to a better lead.

The most reliable path for a first job is still the oldest one: show up.

1. Walk in. Local restaurants, grocery stores, pools, movie theaters and shops often hire teens on the spot. Go midafternoon on a weekday, when managers are less busy, and ask for the person who does hiring.

1. Bring a one-page sheet. Name, phone, availability, any experience (babysitting and volunteering count), and one or two references.

1. Ask people you know. Neighbors, coaches, family friends, parents of classmates. A lot of teen jobs are never posted at all.

1. Follow up once. A short visit or call a week later. Many teens never do this, which makes the ones who do stand out.

1. Keep a simple tracker. Where they applied, when, who they talked to, and the next step. This habit alone turns a frustrating search into a project they can manage.

If the job hunt stalls, your teen can create their own job.

Teens can earn money doing things people nearby already pay for: pet sitting, yard work, tutoring younger kids, helping small businesses with social media, cleaning out garages, or running a small online shop. None of these depend on anyone reading an application.

A small business also teaches the same things a first job does, and a few that most first jobs do not: showing up on time, talking to customers, setting prices, handling money and keeping promises. It is also a strong story on a future application.

Help them start simply. Write down what they will offer, who they will offer it to, what they will charge, and what it costs them. Some families use a notebook or a spreadsheet for this. Others use a planning tool like Foundra, which walks young founders through the offer, pricing and first customers in plain steps.

A little setup at home can save weeks of frustration. Before your teen starts applying, go through this list together.

1. Work permit rules. Some states require a work permit or age certificate for minors. Look up your state's labor department page and get the paperwork ready in advance.

1. A real availability grid. Write down the exact days and hours your teen can work around school, sports and family plans. Managers hire the teen who can cover the shifts they need.

1. A simple email address. First name and last name, nothing clever. Check that it actually receives mail.

1. Two references. A teacher, coach, or neighbor they have helped. Ask those people first.

1. A plan for money. Before the first paycheck arrives, agree on how much gets saved, how much gets spent and whether anything goes toward shared costs like gas or a phone.

Ten minutes on this list makes every walk-in and application smoother.

Silence after an application stings, especially at 15 or 16. A few things parents can say that help:

1. Silence is often about the posting, not about you. Some of those jobs were never really open.

1. Rejection is a numbers game at the start. Almost everyone hears no many times before a first yes.

1. Every application teaches you something. What did you learn about writing your availability or describing your experience?

Then turn it into an action. One walk-in this week, one follow-up call, one new idea for a small business. Momentum fixes more discouragement than pep talks do.

What percentage of job postings are ghost jobs? Estimates vary. Unlisted found 28.3 percent of career site postings had been open more than 90 days in its September 2026 report, but said age alone does not prove a job is fake. Another analysis found about a 30 percent gap between openings and hires most months since 2021.

Are old job postings always fake? No. Restaurants, hotels and other businesses with high turnover often keep postings open all year because they hire constantly.

How many teens have jobs right now? The BLS reported that 36.5 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 were employed in July 2026, the summer peak.

What is the best way for a teen to find a first job? Walk in to local businesses, ask people you know, bring a simple one-page sheet, and follow up once.

Should my teen start a business instead? It can be a great backup or a complement. Services like pet sitting, tutoring or yard work teach customer and money skills and do not depend on anyone reading an application.

1. Ghost Jobs Report, September 2026, Unlisted
2. 28% of job postings on company career sites have been open over 90 days, Hacker News discussion
3. 1 in 3 US job listings go nowhere, creating a ghost job economy, report finds, HR Dive
4. The ghost job economy, MyPerfectResume
5. Teens ages 16 to 19 were employed at nearly half the rate of young adults ages 20 to 24 in July 2026, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics