Job seekers are up against a brutal labor market, sending thousands of applications out to no avail, and resorting to in-person stunts to get an employer’s attention. And a new report is confirming their suspicions: hiring managers are ghosting their candidates, and it’s getting worse for talent every year.

More than half, 53%, of job seekers experienced ghosting within the last year, according to a new report from pre-employment testing company Criteria. And that number just reached a three-year peak, as 48% of applicants were ignored by employers in 2025, and 38% were ghosted in 2024.

Job seekers may point the finger at lethargic hiring managers, but in actuality, the worrying trend might chalk up to an overwhelming hiring process “increasingly ineffective” at finding the right match.

“We’re seeing a surge in application volume, largely fueled by AI tools that make it easier than ever to apply and tailor résumés at scale,” Josh Millet, the cofounder and CEO of Criteria, tells Fortune. “The result is that hiring teams are spending more time reviewing applications, but getting less meaningful signals from each one.”

And as job seekers and hiring managers both increasingly use advanced technology, it’s muddying the best way to pick talent. Millet explained that the résumé, once the benchmark of a job application, is now becoming a “weaker signal” because it can be easily generated by AI. As more people highly tailor their résumé with AI tools, it then becomes harder to differentiate the frontrunner in a pool of polished applications. As a result, employers aren’t always answering back to the thousands of candidates who applied to an open role within the span of just hours.

“Recruiters are inundated, screening methods are less reliable, and communication suffers,” Millet continued. “In many ways, ghosting is less about intent and more about a hiring process that hasn’t caught up to how candidates are applying today.”

‘Ghost jobs’ are also flooding the market, and job-seekers are losing faith

AI has undoubtedly upended the hiring process and turned it into a numbers game; job-seekers send out a deluge of applications until something sticks, while managers are stuck sifting through thousands of candidates for every open role. The trend has been intensifying for years, leaving many job-hunters out in the cold—and sometimes, employers are intentionally ghosting.

‍

Read full article here