When did job seeking become so soul-crushing?

If you’re on the hunt for a new role, chances are you’ve experienced at least one of these scenarios:

‍

• You never heard back after submitting your application
• You were inexplicably “ghosted” by a recruiter midway through the hiring process
• You spotted a great-looking role, prepared your application, and poof – the job listing vanished

The internet is flooded with stories of people waiting weeks to hear back from recruiters, being duped by “ghost jobs” and getting AI-generated rejection emails that make them feel, well, abused. It’s no wonder 79% of candidates feel heightened anxiety about the job market.

Experiences like these are disheartening and they can feel personal. However, if you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone. Trends such as ghosting and ghost jobs are symptoms of a dysfunctional hiring system that’s plagued with new problems.

At Greenhouse, we’re hard at work to help companies fix these problems and become truly great at hiring. Our software is used by over 7,500 companies to manage their entire recruitment process, and in 2024 over 40M people applied for jobs through our platform.

In this article, we will explain why hiring feels so painful right now, share the real reason recruiters ghost candidates and post “ghost jobs,” and most importantly, give you the information you need to feel a lot more confident in your job search.

Let’s get started.

‍

Why is it so hard to get hired?

Landing a new job has always been hard. But there are three new trends that have made it particularly challenging lately:

‍

1. There’s a “white-collar recession”

The macroeconomic data tells a story of a strong economy with low unemployment. But the reality for so-called “white-collar workers,” especially in tech, paints a different picture. According to Layoffs.fyi, over 500,000 tech workers have lost their jobs since the start of 2022. Meanwhile, the rate of hiring in tech has dropped significantly. In short, there are fewer white-collar jobs and more workers looking for roles after being laid off. Competition is fierce.

‍

2. More applications for fewer jobs

In Q3 2024, recruiters received an average of 588 applications per role – an increase of 26% since the same time the previous year. Have recruiting resources increased in line with this surge? No, the opposite has happened. In recent years, companies have scaled back their recruiting resources. So there are more applications and fewer people to handle them. And that means if you’re a candidate, you’re more likely to be left without a reply – and without closure. To shore up the imbalance, many companies are turning to agencies. Others are turning to AI.

‍

3. AI is wreaking havoc on both sides of the hiring process

AI is playing an increasingly influential role in the hiring process for both candidates and recruiters. A growing number of job seekers are using AI to accelerate their job search, with 38% of candidates using AI tools to submit applications en masse. Many recruiters are responding to this surge in applications by adopting their own AI tools to auto-reject applications that don’t meet basic criteria. The rise of automated rejections is leaving candidates feeling like they’re caught in a hiring environment that’s becoming more and more dehumanizing.

Together, these trends have driven up competition for roles, decreased recruiting resources and given rise to a host of unwelcome new hiring habits. It’s time to talk about ghosting.
‍

New hiring habits explained

Why do recruiters ghost candidates?

Imagine this: you updated your resume, wrote a cover letter and applied for a role. You were invited to do an interview. It went well! You were waiting to hear about the next steps and then – silence. That’s ghosting. And 61% of job hunters experienced it in 2024.

Not hearing back after applying for a role is one thing. Doing an actual interview only to be abandoned by the hiring team is a whole other level of frustration. Let’s be clear: there’s no good excuse for ghosting candidates. The best companies and recruiters don’t do it – they make it a priority to communicate with every candidate, whether it’s good news or bad.

So why does ghosting happen? The uncomfortable truth is that recruiters often prioritize spending time with candidates they’re moving forward with, while letting communication slip with others. It’s a form of short-term thinking that creates a poor candidate experience and can damage the company’s reputation.

There’s another factor at play too: delivering bad news all day is emotionally draining. Some recruiters resort to silence or generic messages (even with candidates they’ve spent considerable time with) as a way to cope with the mental toll of constantly disappointing people. Is this the right approach? No. But understanding why it happens can help us come to terms with it. In the vast majority of cases, ghosting is a symptom of a broken system. It’s deeply frustrating, but it’s not personal.

‍

What is a ghost job and why do they even exist?

Now let’s talk about ghost jobs, which are roles that are posted and accepting applications, but nothing ever happens. No interviews. No rejection emails. No hiring. Just – silence. If you’re one of the 60% of candidates who suspect they’ve encountered a ghost job, you know how infuriating they are.

So why on earth do companies do this?

Sometimes it’s just sloppiness – the company decided not to move forward with hiring but forgot to take down the posting. Or it could be as simple as the hiring manager being on vacation with no one else assigned to handle applications.

Then there are the companies that deliberately keep jobs posted to create the appearance of growth, both for the outside world and their own team. Other companies do it to build pipelines – they’re not hiring now but expect to in the future, so they’re collecting resumes. Meanwhile, there are staffing agencies that post ghost roles just to build their candidate database so they can tell companies they have a pool of talent to dip into.

But here’s the thing that’s really important to understand: as a candidate, the “why” ultimately doesn’t matter. Whether it’s a genuine ghost job or a real position where they’re just not responding, the result is the same – silence. Your time is valuable, and the best strategy is to keep moving forward with other opportunities.

‍

Why are job applications so much work?

Now to another issue that’s a source of major frustration for candidates: the job application process itself. When you decide to apply for a role, it’s frustrating to have to re-enter information on an application form that’s already included in your resume. Even more frustrating is having to create a separate account for every single company you want to apply to – something that a lot of employers still make you do, much to the bewilderment of job seekers.

Honestly, we have no idea why companies put you through that. Greenhouse customers certainly don’t. It usually happens due to limitations when a company’s applicant tracking system (ATS) isn’t Greenhouse. For example, the recruiter might be stuck using clunky software that gives them little say in how they design their application forms. Chances are, the recruiter is nearly as frustrated about this as you are. They might also want to be able to filter applications by specific criteria, like an industry qualification or level of experience, but their hiring software doesn’t let them search across a list of resumes to see who has what they’re looking for. So they require you to answer a question about it on their application form.

At Greenhouse, we’ve been busy building functionality and features that directly combat the new hiring habits that have made job searching so frustrating. You can read about them all here.

‍

A better hiring experience

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Job hunting has become soul-crushing. But in most cases, recruiters don’t want it to be that way any more than you do. They’re working in a job market that has changed dramatically, and are stuck using old tactics and tools that aren’t capable of meeting the needs of hiring companies or candidates.

That’s why it’s always worth looking at what companies say about hiring and then check what software they’re using. This is where words and actions need to align. Most recruiters have good intentions and good practices, but if they’re using a basic or outdated system, you’re still going to have a bad experience as a candidate. At Greenhouse, we want to put the best functionality in the hands of the best companies at hiring. Why? So they can deliver the best candidate experience to you.