In the US a lot of these are pseudo postings for immigration applications. They are technically posting the job, but in pt 3 for on page 72 of a random newspaper in a hope that nobody sees it and applies so they can say “we couldn’t find anyone so we need a visa/green card.”
That’s starting to get cracked down on, but it’s been a mess and a sham for a while.
> They are technically posting the job, but in pt 3 for on page 72 of a random newspaper
That one is theoretically easy. When you apply, the job you “couldn’t fill” gets auto-posted to a very, very public government-hosted job board (with applicant tracking).
There's another side to it. Imagine a company has a guy somewhere overseas that they hired, and they worked with him for 5 years, and now they want to bring them to the US because it's more convenient and close to the main team. Can they replace it with a US applicant? Not really, unless US applicant can magically gain 5 years of experience with company's products or processes. But by law they must publish a job posting. So they post a fake job posting which nobody ever except one person could possibly fit, and silently hope nobody sees it (because they are not bad guys, they don't want to mislead anybody, they just not need a random worker, they want a very specific person for a very specific position, and they already have the person). The lawmakers meant well, the company means well, but the result is a mess.
That’s starting to get cracked down on, but it’s been a mess and a sham for a while.