In online dating, it’s become common for someone who “isn’t that into you” to just stop replying to messages.
It’s called “ghosting,” and a growing number of employers say Generation Z job applicants are doing it to them in the hiring process.
“Applicants are simply uninterested in the job offer, same as they would be uninterested in a profile on Tinder or any other dating site,” said Clark Lowe, president and CEO of the O’Connor Co., a commercial and industrial construction company. “The communication of disinterest is no communication at all.”
Over the past year, three Gen Z applicants have ghosted ZeroBounce, a California-based email verification company.
“There were no red flags during the interview process,” said Brian Minick, ZeroBounce’s chief operating officer. “One was just steps away from signing the contract. All three had accepted the salary we negotiated, so it wasn’t about compensation.”
Susan Snipes, a Texas-based human resources manager, said one candidate ghosted her after receiving a job offer three weeks into an interview process.
“Ghosting is another way of saying, ‘It’s not you, it’s me,’” Ms. Snipes said. “Hiring is a relationship you’re trying to build with someone, so if the communication isn’t clear and effective on both sides, it doesn’t work out.”
A Resume.org survey of 1,115 hiring managers this month found that 54% reported being ghosted by a Gen Z candidate after extending a job offer. That led 1 in 10 of the managers surveyed to stop considering job candidates from the generation born between 1997 and 2012.
“We believe job seekers are interviewing, potentially receiving multiple offers and not understanding or recognizing the need to be courteous by informing a company they’re declining the job they’ve been offered for various reasons,” said Sheldon Arora, CEO of StaffDNA, a Texas-based health care employment agency. “It’s a new era of job seeking and hiring, and we’re all learning as we go.”
‘Digital convenience’
According to workforce experts, ghosting has hit entry- and mid-level jobs the hardest in recent years, reflecting a tight market for white-collar openings. Affected industries include retail, technology, marketing, customer service and restaurant management.
They blame the trend on a yearslong breakdown of hiring etiquette that accelerated as more employers embraced digital application processes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic made virtual communication and remote interviewing processes a standard, but it inadvertently dehumanized job searching,” said Brittany Truszkowski, a hiring expert and chief operating officer of Phoenix-based Grand Canyon Law Group. “Gen Z graduated into the workforce in a world where digital convenience often took precedence over professional courtesy.”
Columbia University business professor Rita McGrath said virtual learning deprived many young people during the COVID-19 crisis of the hands-on internships they needed to build interpersonal trust and skills.
“I honestly think many of them have no idea what previous generations might have expected because they have lived their entire lives with these technologies,” Ms. McGrath said.
In a March survey, jobs website Indeed found that 78% of job seekers reported ghosting an employer.
The company found that 70% of survey respondents saw ghosting as “fair,” even though 89% of employers surveyed said it was a problem when candidates did it before or on the first day of work.
“The feeling of ghosting can be a two-way street,” said Laurie Cure, CEO of Innovative Connections, an organizational consulting firm. “Many employers, despite their best efforts, are not as communicative or timely with potential candidates and job applicants, leaving them with less desire to be polite on the other side.”
Ghost jobs and applicants
Ghosting occurs among all generations, but experts say Gen Z is the most likely to dump a potential employer without explanation because of ignorance and bad application experiences.
According to a report from Jobright, an artificial intelligence-powered job search service based in Silicon Valley, 100% of job seekers report being ghosted at least once. Another 61% say they have experienced it multiple times, with staffing agencies being the worst offenders.
“This generation has grown up in an environment where employers ghost candidates as a matter of course,” said Eric Cheng, Jobright’s CEO. “It’s not so much frustration as it is a redefinition of norms shaped by how they’ve seen the system treat them.”
Changes in hiring procedures have led more employers to ignore applications, post unmonitored “ghost jobs” and make no effort to offer applicants any feedback.
“Truthfully, employers may be at least partly to blame here,” said Steve Schwab, CEO of Casago, a Florida vacation rentals and property management company.
At the same time, young people’s growing pickiness about job offerings has reinforced negative perceptions of their work ethic.
In a 2024 survey, the Idaho-based jobs board RedBalloon found that 68% of small business owners said Gen Z workers struggled with reliability.
“Gen Z has been bitten by the entitlement bug for years,” said Andrew Crapuchettes, RedBalloon’s CEO. “The growing trend of young applicants ghosting job offers only confirms those concerns.”
Caitlin Luetger-Schlewitt, a career preparation instructor at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, said her students cite low salary offers, a refusal to share benefits information and taking too long to respond as reasons they might ghost an employer.
“They often have high expectations for salaries that are not always reflective of market rates for entry-level roles, and they expect a certain level of bedside manner from hiring managers,” Ms. Luetger-Schlewitt said. “Overall, I think Gen Z is frustrated with the market because they are worried about paying bills and student loan debt, while at the same time, the market is oversaturated with equally qualified candidates.”
A millennial herself, Ms. Luetger-Schlewitt noted that she once ghosted a job offer in college after realizing the commute wouldn’t work for her class schedule.
“I was scared and didn’t know how to say no, so I ghosted them, hoping the situation would just go away,” she added. “It didn’t, and eventually I had to own up to my mistake.”
Restoring civility
Workforce experts say employers and applicants can relieve their frustration over ghosting by saying “please,” “no” and “thank you” to each other more often.
“While job search fatigue is real, sending a simple ‘thank you, I’ve accepted another offer’ message builds professional trust and may open doors later,” said Elika Dadsetan-Foley, a social worker and executive director of Visions Inc., a Massachusetts mental health nonprofit.
Charly Huang, a human resources official at Ace Ball Markers, a Chicago company that sells golf ball markings, said companies must likewise offer applicants “a more personable and friendly recruitment experience.”
For example, she said her own company gives new employees small gifts.
“It is all those little things that add up,” Ms. Huang said. “People remember how you treated them even long before someone’s first day.”
According to job experts, companies that speed up their hiring processes are the most likely to avoid ghosting.
“Companies need to treat hiring as a two-way street,” said Patrice Williams-Lindo, CEO of Career Nomad, an Atlanta-based job coaching firm. “Speed up your hiring timelines. Stop posting ‘ghost jobs.’ And follow up.”
Matt Poepsel, vice president of talent optimization at the Predictive Index, a Massachusetts-based human resources research firm, said employers are responsible for modeling clear and respectful communication in a changing job market.
“The burden to fix the system should not fall on early-career candidates,” Mr. Poepsel said. “The bigger shift has to come from employers.”
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