Why Candidates Ghost Employers

Why Job Seekers Ghost Employers

Most job seekers I have spoken to over the last 20 years have shared their frustration with employers abandoning communications midstream in the hiring process.  Ghosting is highly unprofessional and bad for a company’s brand. The introduction to applicant tracking systems and artificial intelligence have taken much of the human factor out of the hiring process.

Smart employers understand this and make sure that the human-to-human phases of the screening process are handled in a positive and professional way. Inviting a prospective employee in for a series of interviews only to leave them hanging is not only unprofessional, but also cruel…and job seekers have every right to be upset about it.

Candidates aren’t blameless either!

 Before we light our torches to storm the company’s castle, check out these stats:

 ·         According to a study conducted by Indeed, 83% of employers report being ghosted at some point in the hiring cycle.

 ·         A SHRM talent trend report shows that 44% of candidates admit to ghosting employers, while 53% report being ghosted by employers themselves. This mutual ghosting has created a more level, if dysfunctional, playing field..

 ·         In a survey by The Harris Poll, the majority of employers reported up to 25% of new hires not showing up on Day One after accepting a new position. A whopping 87% of Gen Z’ers surveyed admit to ghosting at least one employer.

Why do candidates ghost employers?

 This whole dynamic of pulling the plug on communications is reaching epic proportions. Certainly job seekers bear some accountability to behave professionally, honor their commitments, and demonstrate enthusiasm to do the job.

 But employers’ behaviors have played a major role in this evolution as well. Consider these reasons why even awesome candidates may vanish without a trace:

 ·         Employers have normalized ghosting. According to a 2023 Greenhouse survey, 75% of candidates say they’ve been ghosted by an employer after the interviews have begun. And this is not just after applying, it’s after an actual conversation. This makes it hard for job seekers to feel too badly for mirroring this behavior.

 ·         Applying for jobs is not just time-consuming, it’s psychologically draining. Candidates are expected to tailor resumes, write cover letters, prep for interviews, and perform like Olympic athletes in behavioral Q&A sessions. By the time companies finally get around to speaking to them, fed up candidates are more likely to pull the plug if they sense a bad fit, a toxic culture, or a bait-and-switch job description.

 ·         Candidates have begun to learn that not every interview is about finding the best match. Some are about checking boxes, meeting diversity quotas, or satisfying internal policies. Job seekers can tell when they have wasted their time on a role that was never intended to be filled. When they sense disingenuous agendas they ghost, not just with the current job but for any positions the employer may genuinely be looking to fill later.

 ·         Just as employers are buried under resumes, candidates are buried under job postings. LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter make it easy to apply to dozens of jobs in a single sitting. So when multiple interviews stack up, candidates often prioritize the roles that feel promising, responsive, and respectful. If a company hasn’t communicated clearly or moved quickly, it may get ghosted simply because someone else treated the talent better.

 ·         The hiring process may be sending red flags. Long delays. Vague job descriptions. Inflexible scheduling. These are all signals that candidates interpret as “this place doesn’t respect my time.” When respect is lacking, communication breaks down. Ghosting is often a symptom of a broken process, not a broken person.

 ·         Some employers inadvertently build a brand as a toxic place to work, either through reviews or prior candidate/employee experience. Workers are typically quite energized to share their experience with a company that treated them unprofessionally in the screening and onboarding processes. Ghosting a single candidate may mean that the company has then branded themselves as ghosters to an entire talent pipeline.

 Candidates (and many hiring authorities) are afraid of confrontation.  So, let’s not ignore the human factor: ghosting is often a fear response. Many candidates (and many hiring authorities) don’t know how to say “no” professionally. They (both sides) worry about burning bridges, being guilt-tripped, or facing awkward follow-ups. So they (both sides) choose silence.

So who is at fault for ghosting? Candidates or employers?

While the obvious answer is both, I do see employers being mostly responsible for the ghosting phenomenon. Companies have complete control over how they elect to brand themselves as employers of choice. Hiring managers and recruiters are measured almost entirely by how well they can select and optimize talent. This is their full-time job.

Workers are almost always in candidate mode either on a part-time or temporary basis. Should they be let off the hook for executing an effective search and personal presentation strategy? Absolutely not! But employers need to understand that they are the professionals in the employer-candidate engagement process.

One final note to employers:

 Yes, ghosting is frustrating. But before you blame the candidate, ask yourself:

 ·         Did we communicate clearly and promptly?

·         Did we treat them like a person, not a resume?

·         Did we create a process that invites honesty and closure?

 If not, then ghosting may be the feedback you didn’t ask for but probably need. Want to reduce ghosting?

Start by fixing the system that makes silence feel safer than speaking up.