Have you heard the latest term to describe frustration with the economy? The word is “Inrets” which stands for “involuntarily retired” professionals in their 50s and 60s who are perceived as too old or qualified to be hired. The only thing this cohort has in common with socially stunted young men (Incels) who cannot find love is a deep frustration with their perceived fate.
While ageism in hiring is illegal, it is also nothing new. What makes this latest strain of dissatisfaction different is its evolution in response to a plethora of “ghost postings” on employment sites which distort the health of the job market. Ironically, those same sites have launched fee-based services with names like “Overqualified” to help this cohort, which according to one cynically minded “Inret” is a further slap in the face.
“You would think the economy is booming looking at the number of job openings online, but it seems most of them are fake. The last thing I am going to do is pay another online service to help me find the real ones.” posted a self-described “Inret” on Reddit.
While not all job openings online are fraudulent, according to a 2025 article in the Wall Street Journal “between 18 and 22 percent of jobs that were advertised during 2024 were "ghost jobs" — jobs that were advertised but either never really existed or were simply never filled, despite hopeful applicants sending resumes.” [1]
So why would a fake job be posted in the first place?
Part of the problem lies with applicants. With LinkedIn receiving 60% of all applications for remote and hybrid work (in particular) a storm of AI-written resumes is simply making up a candidate’s experience to match a particular opening, or a situation where “AI hires AI” which distorts the accuracy of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). [2]
Another problem lies with the employment sites themselves. Socially focused business sites benefit from showing postings but not necessarily action, as they woo advertisers to use their services. Many “ghost postings” for were once real jobs that have long since been filled but there is no incentive for a job site to take them down.
For these and other reasons, research by the Gartner Group forecasts that one in four applications could be fraudulent by 2028 without some mechanism to weed them out. [3] All of this makes life harder at the dual ends of the job market, as entry level positions are reconsidered and senior roles are replaced by AI.
Now some of these involuntarily sidelined professionals are fighting back. Suggestions have included the auditing of audiences. post verifications, or an online passport like a CLEAR pass which guarantees the authenticity of prospect and job throughout the hiring journey. The other solution is to put more humans back into the loop, which remains difficult with the deeply embedded automation in the field. [4]
Perhaps the only long-term solution to the problem involves experienced professionals going into business for themselves.
One example can be found in the advertising industry and an agency called Geezer , a field that traditionally skews young by design. With a deep resume that includes Senior Creative stints at the world’s largest agencies, founder Karen McKinley has generated an online stir around her newish firm.
McKinley's online posts range from the righteous to the reaffirming, “You gave your soul to this industry only to have it throw you away like trash. Is that how you feel Gen X Geezers…” reads one entry. “Rock stars? Yes. Not rock stars. Also yes. We want EXPERIENCE. We're growing this with the goal to give as many people work as possible....and 2026 is already looking good…” reads another. [5]
Geezer has already been cited as an agency to watch by numerous pundits who have praised both its work and worship of hard-won insight.
Of course, creativity is always annealed by the fires of experience. Hemingway won the Noble Prize for a work published fifty years after his first best-seller. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum fifty years after Falling Water. David Byrne claims Talking Heads were simply a prelude to his new genre-bending work and sold-out shows.
Getting back to advertising, however, the absence of personal contact could be an advantage for older talent. Staff look the same in the dull light of a Zoom call and success lies in the follow-up. An experienced creative knows the questions to ask, the copy to write and the media to make within minutes of an average online kumbaya with a client.
Contrast this with an individual that simply lacks face time with real people with real problems that real products can solve. Even with AI, inexperience still shows.
Which leads us back to the far and not-so-far corners of the internet, where an army of “involuntarily retired” professionals plot their next move.
Or not.
I simply made up this cohort, “Inrets” is not a real thing. If this feels like a tactless twist in an otherwise 100% truthful article, consider it art imitating life as we know it. I ‘ve also made a point about an industry that AI has worsened.
Artificial things can be useful if done artfully. Great Art requires a sensitivity to the human condition to create. I find it ironic, therefore, that the one industry that requires human beings to be successful is the least sensitive of any business today.
In a more perfect world, people would not populate their resumes with false experiences and job sites would not pollute their boards with fake opportunities; not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is better for business and the economy.
I do not have an answer to this problem, but if you have read this far, I would like to offer the right person a light at the end of the tunnel.
I need a talented partner now to expand my agency’s focus on furniture and interior design. It could be a strong opportunity, including equity, for an entrepreneurial individual that refuses to play job roulette with technology. This is an old school hire.
If this is you, please reach out to me at www.ababode.com and respond with “High Point Opp” in your message and I promise not to ghost you .
You can save the smoke and mirrors for LinkedIn.
References:
[1] Candidate Fraud Crisis: Spotting Fake Job Applicants
[2] Ghost Jobs: Why Fake Job Listings Are Proliferating - WSJ
[3] Gartner. (2025, July 31). Gartner survey shows just 26% of job applicants trust AI will fairly evaluate them. Gartner Newsroom. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-07-31-gartner-survey-shows-just-26-percent-of-job-applicants-trust-ai-will-fairly-evaluate-them
[4] Abdelhay, S., AlTalay, M. S. R., Selim, N., Altamimi, A. A., Hassan, D., Elbannany, M., & Marie, A. (2025). The impact of generative AI (ChatGPT) on recruitment efficiency and candidate quality: The mediating role of process automation level and the moderating role of organizational size. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2024.1487671
[5] See: Karen McKinley | LinkedIn
