Priya S., 22, went through four rounds of interviews to get a position of strategy. He participated in two virtual meetings, made a written work and finally went to a face-to-face interview... Then, silence.
For weeks the company did not communicate with her again.When she finally received an email asking for documentation to continue the process, Priya had already accepted another job and decided not to respond.
“If they didn’t respect my time during the process, why should I rush to answer now?” he told Harper’s Bazaar India.
His case illustrates a practice that has become increasingly visible in the labor market: the “ghosting” between candidates and employers, when one of the parties suddenly disappears and stops responding to calls, emails or messages.
In the U.S., a survey of 1,115 recruiters found that 54% said they had been ignored at least once by a Generation Z candidate after giving them a job offer. That is, more than half of the managers surveyed claimed to have experienced at least one such situation.
Ghosting can occur virtually at any time of the hiring. According to the survey conducted by ResumeTemplates.com using Pollfish:
41% said they lost contact with candidates after the first approach and 38% after an interview.
Generation Z in the U.S. is leading the trading market, according to Bank of America reports
Amit D. came even further. After a selection process of about a month, she accepted an offer to work in technology.
During the interviews he had heard comments about extensive working days and calls during the weekends. These signs made him reconsider what he had accepted. “I could already imagine how life would be there,” he told Harper’s Bazaar India. Getting away, she said, seemed to her a way of protecting herself from a work environment that had already generated her doubts before she started.
Priya and Amit’s cases occurred in India and are not part of the U.S. survey, but show two reasons that experts also identify in other markets: too long processes and negative signals on labor culture can cause some candidates to leave without warning.
For the US companies surveyed, these disappearances have concrete consequences. Among recruiters who said they suffered from ghosting from Gen Z candidates, 66% said the practice made it harder to hire staff.
In addition to:
A small group went even further: 7% of those who had experienced ghosting said they stopped considering Generation Z candidates.
ResumeTemplates.com experts warn, however, that discarding a full generation can significantly reduce the available talent group and generate long-term hiring problems.
Workers have been reporting for years that some companies have stopped communicating after interviews, tests and several stages of selection.
The frustration appears even among young people who advance to the last instances. Mark Beal, associate professor at Rutgers University, told Inc. That many of his Generation Z students have gone through several rounds of interviews and then ceased to receive any response from the employer.
A survey published in 2026 also found that, among U.S. Generation Z candidates, 78% said they had been ignored by a company after an interview, although it is a different survey and with its own methodology.
The problem, therefore, seems to work in both directions.
Kara Dennison, head of professional advice at ResumeTemplates.com, believes that many young workers expect speed, transparency and authenticity during a selection process.
When a company delays for weeks, changes conditions, or does not clearly explain what will happen next, some candidates lose interest or continue to look for other opportunities.
That doesn’t mean that disappearing without warning is the only alternative. Experts point out that a short message formally rejecting an offer avoids closing professional doors and allows the company to quickly proceed with another candidate.
But the phenomenon reveals a broader change: accepting an offer no longer necessarily guarantees that person will occupy the position.
Some companies are changing their processes to reduce the risk of ghosting. 52% of surveyed hiring managers said they now emphasize commitment expectations from the early stages, while 43% maintain informal contacts with the candidate between accepting the offer and the first day of work.
Others try to speed up interviews or communicate more clearly the terms of the job.
The challenge seems to be to recover a confidence that has deteriorated on both sides: companies who fear the candidate won’t appear and candidates who fear to invest weeks in a selection to finish without even receiving a response.
