The “Employment” category: what it changes
For an ad offering a job, Facebook and Instagram require a special category, “Employment”. As soon as an ad is declared in it, some of the usual advertising settings disappear.
| Usual setting | In the “Employment” category |
|---|---|
| Choosing an age range (“20 to 30”) | Banned: the ad targets all adults |
| Choosing a gender | Banned |
| Targeting a postcode or a very small area | Banned: the area has a minimum radius (about 17 km when I measured it on 27 August 2026) |
| Finely excluding a neighbourhood or a town | Banned |
| Creating a “lookalike” audience based on your current employees | Unavailable |
In plain terms: you choose a fairly wide area around the workplace, and that is all. No identikit of the ideal candidate defined by age, gender or address. These rules are Meta's as of the date of my measurement; they may change.
Why these bans exist
Because a job offer is not an advert for shoes. If you could show an offer only to men under 30, women and people over 30 would not even know the job existed. They would be ruled out before they could apply, without knowing it and with no recourse.
This is what the law calls hiring discrimination: ruling someone out for who they are (their age, gender, origin, place of residence) rather than for what they can do. In France, it is prohibited, whether through a poster, a job site or an advert. Facebook's rules for the “Employment” category stop ad delivery itself from doing this sorting silently.
I am not a lawyer, and this article is not legal advice. If you have doubts about a specific offer, ask your adviser or your professional body.
Declaring it is mandatory
It is not optional. Every ad offering a job must be declared in the “Employment” category. A job ad run as an ordinary advert, for example to keep age targeting, breaks the platform's rules. Facebook can then reject it and penalise the ad account that ran it.
With me, the question does not arise: every ad is declared in the “Employment” category, without exception. You have nothing to tick and you cannot forget it.
Why it is good news
- Your pool widens. The candidate you would not have imagined (the person changing career, the experienced older worker, the woman who wants to work in industry) sees your ad. If they can do the job, that is one more application, and sometimes the best one.
- The platform learns from what happens. Since you can no longer target by age or gender, Facebook observes who actually responds to your ad and shows it first to people who behave in the same way. I explain it here. I have not measured whether this is fairer than the old targeting: I believe it, I do not prove it.
- You are protected. Ad delivery that respects the rules means an ad that will not be cut off in the middle of recruitment, and a company that does not have to justify having sorted its candidates by age.
- The rules are the same for everyone. No advertiser can legally get around these limits. You are not starting at a disadvantage against other employers.
The ad text matters too
The “Employment” category governs who the ad is shown to. What the ad says remains your responsibility. A few common-sense habits:
- describe the job and the skills, not the ideal person (“young and dynamic” rules people out without saying so);
- talk about working conditions (hours, place, training): that is what lets everyone know whether the job suits them;
- if in doubt about a wording, have it reread.
What I do for you
| What I do | Why |
|---|---|
| I declare every ad in the “Employment” category | It is mandatory, and you do not have to think about it |
| I set an area around the workplace that respects the minimum radius | The area is the only targeting allowed: it might as well be right |
| I measure who reaches the page, who starts and who submits their application | These signals help the platform learn, with no age or gender criteria |
| I pass no identity data to Meta | See below |
On data, my rule fits in two sentences: I pass no direct identity data (name, email, phone) to Meta. After consent, only pseudonymous technical identifiers (advertising cookies, IP address, browser) are shared to measure ad performance.
In short
- A job ad on Facebook or Instagram must be declared in the “Employment” category.
- In this category: no targeting by age, gender or postcode, a minimum radius, no lookalike audiences.
- These rules stop ad delivery from silently creating hiring discrimination.
- At Rafa, every ad is declared, and no identity data goes to Meta.
