Conservative HR/Legal departments will often post jobs publicly to avoid a discrimination lawsuit from the EEOC. The federal government can (and routinely does

Conservative HR/Legal departments will often post jobs publicly to avoid a discrimination lawsuit from the EEOC. The federal government can (and routinely does) ask mid-sized to large companies for records of their job applicants to "prove" they are not discriminating against protected categories (women, minorities, the disabled, etc). So if the CEO/hiring exec wants to hire his good old boy friend to a position no matter what the job will still be posted and applicants will be collected even if they have no chance of being hired. Obviously I have no data on how prevalent this practice is but I've witnessed it firsthand, so it happens.