When is a vacancy a weak or misleading buying signal? | Working Climate

Always test at least one alternative explanation before treating recruitment as evidence of automation demand.

Observed signal	Possible explanation	What to verify
Administrator vacancy	Absence cover rather than growth	Contract length and reason for recruitment; Exoair explicitly identifies maternity cover. (exoair.com)
New estimator role	Genuine team expansion, but in a much larger operating model	Employer segment and project scope; ISS explicitly identifies expansion across a government estate. (jobs.service.gov.uk)
Office-management vacancy	Need for leadership and process ownership	What authority and improvement responsibilities the role carries. (glassdoor.co.uk)
Engineer vacancy	Replacement, expansion or a delivery constraint	Reason for the hire and available job capacity; do not infer either from title alone.
Attractive advertised OTE	Performance-dependent earnings rather than guaranteed salary	Basic pay and commission separately; Payaca publishes both. (payaca.com)
Same role appearing on several boards	Potential republication rather than several positions	Employer, location, requisition identifier, responsibilities and original date.
Software named as desirable experience	Relevant familiarity, not proof of the installed configuration	Actual product, plan, permissions, data quality and workflow ownership.

The last three verification rules are research safeguards, not claims about the frequency of those situations in this market.

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