Jobs marketplace says ‘ghosting’ of Gen Z jobseekers is rife

A Melbourne jobseeker spent almost two hours interviewing for a dream job. What they were told at the end left them infuriated.

Co-founder and CEO of Hatch, Adam Jacobs, says ghosting jobseekers needs to stop.

Sarah* sent an email she never expected to get a response to.

The 23-year-old had just graduated from a communications and media degree in Melbourne and sent a “cold email” to an employer at her dream job.

She was shocked when she heard back and was told there was a role “that would be perfect” for her.

“The only problem is that it was in Sydney. I told them I was based in Melbourne but would be willing to move if the role suited,” she told news.com.au.

“This was me potentially relocating my whole life so I took it very seriously.”

Things progressed fast and within days she was invited for an interview. It lasted 40 minutes and her interviewer seemed “very excited and enthusiastic”.

After three weeks, Sarah contacted the office again. She was invited for a second interview that lasted an hour.

“They seemed very into me and really positive. They said to me, ‘Don’t wig out if you don’t hear back, we’ll get back to you’.”

That was mid-November last year. She has been ghosted ever since.

“They went out of their way to say, ‘don’t worry, we’ll contact you’ and then I never heard anything,” Sarah said.

Flexible work was one of the top three priorities for jobseekers in the 2024 Hatch Hotlist survey.

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She has since found work but the experience left a bitter taste in her mouth. And she is not alone.

A Sydney jobs marketplace says ghosting is one of the most common experiences for jobseekers.

The co-founder and CEO of employment website Hatch, Adam Jacobs, said jobseekers were reporting disturbingly high rates of ghosting.

Hatch conducted a poll in which 80 per cent of respondents reported ghosting 75 per cent of the time they were looking for jobs.

They said it left them “frustrated”, “feeling unemployable although I am very skilled”, “questioning thewhole system”, ”defeated, unsure and on edge” and “frustrated and anxious”. 

One said: “It makes me feel terrible. If I was not accepted, I would still like a response to add rejection to my Excel sheet.” 

Jacobs, who also co-founded THE ICONIC, wants his new venture Hatch to “ghost bust” the jobs space.

“When we talk to candidates about their experience of looking for jobs, ghosting is always top of the list of their frustrations,” he said.

“When someone’s applying for a job, it’s a nerve-wracking experience. They’re putting themselves out there and when they don’t hear back, it’s incredibly demoralising.

Zoe Lo was ghosted when applying for more than 100 jobs.

She shared her frustrating journey on social media.

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“It also gives the candidate a very negative impression of that employer and their brand. The risk for employers is not just that they demotivate that one candidate, but that they build a reputation in the market of someone who doesn’t get back to you, and that can really damage their ability to attract high-quality candidates.”

Hatch is asking young Australians to have their say on in this year’s Hatch’s Hotlist survey, which is focusing on ghosting and the use of AI in job hunting, as well as finding out which Australian employers people most want to work at. 

Last year’s Hatch Hotlist from the start-up that pitches itself as Seek for Gen Z found that jobseekers want three things from employers.

Culture was at the top of the list, fair pay was second and hybrid, flexible working was third.

More than 3000 people voted for the companies they most wanted to work for, including Airtasker, Amazon, Canva, Google and Qantas.

News.com.au previously reported that young people applying for jobs were being brushed off, rejected and ghosted by companies and recruiters.

Zoe Lo, 24, said she had applied for 100 jobs over a four-month period and was rejected or ghosted by roughly three-quarters of those.

Of those jobs, some were graduate programs and others were full-time roles in marketing, PR or social media.

“For many graduate roles you have to do an online assessment round as well, so I did a few of those for different companies,” she said.

In one recent video, the 24-year-old claimed that she was at the point in her job search where she did “not care anymore”.At this point in time, she had applied to about 95 jobs and said that she knew it “sounded bad” but she couldn’t “fake” caring about getting a job.

Ms Lo said her mindset had shifted, noting that when she first started her job hunt she was worried about being unemployed and felt stressed about finding a job immediately.“Now I am like, OK I am unemployed, I have no income, but I’ll be OK,” she said.

Jacobs says he wants people to find the right job and team culture match through a “more human experience — a bit like a dating app but without the heartbreak of ghosting”.

Young people have also been taking to social media to share their frustrations.

*Sarah’s name has been changed.

Originally published as Jobs marketplace says ‘ghosting’ of Gen Z jobseekers is rife