Why recruiters ghost 66% of rejected candidates

Each job posting now receives 18% more applications on average than in 2025. Faced with this volume, you answer case by case, and some candidates wait in vain. You fix this with an acknowledgement of receipt, an announced timeline and rejections sent in batches.

How many candidates do recruiters ghost?

66.2% of candidates say they are ghosted when their application is rejected (Hellowork 2026). In the same survey, 93% of recruiters claim they always send a message when they reject someone. In 2024, 57% of recruiters already admitted to having ghosted a candidate (Indeed and OpinionWay).

Jooble surveyed 1,337 workers in France in 2026. 80% of them have already waited in vain for an answer after an interview, and 58.9% more than three times (Journal du Net 2026). Jooble also identifies when the silence happens.

46.3% of the workers surveyed by Jooble say they doubt their skills after this silence. Recruiters therefore ghost mostly when CVs come in, when the volume weighs the most.

Why do recruiters ghost their candidates?

Recruiters ghost first because they lack time to handle the volume of applications. In the first half of 2026, each job posted on Hellowork received on average 18% more applications than a year earlier (Hellowork 2026).

Among recruiters who leave candidates waiting, 38.3% cite the volume of applications and 31.9% a lack of time (Hellowork 2026). You handle this volume with a process designed for fewer applications.

When the answer depends on memory, the recruiter puts it off until after the interviews and the reminders to managers. 37% of recruiters always describe the hiring process in the job posting (Hellowork 2026). Managers who are slow to approve profiles also lengthen the wait (read our three ways to involve hiring managers in recruitment).

You have little control over the volume. You do control the response process.

How do you answer every candidate when applications pour in?

You make the reply to the candidate a step of the process, with its own deadline. You organise this step around three measures:

• you send an automatic acknowledgement as soon as the application arrives;
• you state the process and a response time in the job posting, for example 10 working days;
• you send rejections in batches, once a week, with one template per job.

In each rejection, you give a reason linked to the job. The candidate then understands what was missing. To screen faster, read our method for AI-written applications. For these three measures, you need a tool that brings applications and messages together.

How does an ATS help you answer every candidate?

An ATS brings applications and messages together, and sends rejections in batches. In JobAffinity, you reject a candidate in one click from their CV, with a personalised email. You write your rejection templates by job and by stage. You choose to send them immediately or later.

With bulk rejection, you answer several candidates at once. You communicate by email, SMS or WhatsApp, and the ATS files each message in the candidate's record. Coming soon, JAI, the JobAffinity AI, will also remind you of candidates still waiting for an answer.

JobAffinity has been a French ATS for 17 years, used by 10,000+ recruiters. To see bulk rejection with your own rejection templates, book a JobAffinity demo.

Sources

Accessed on 22 and 23 October 2026. Sources in French.

• Indeed, Ghosting en recrutement : des données récentes dévoilées, study with OpinionWay, 16 January 2024
• Journal du Net, Recrutement : 80 % des candidats victimes de ghosting, Jooble survey of 1,337 workers, 10 March 2026
• Hellowork, Ces secteurs où la concurrence entre candidats n'a pas flambé, H1 2026 barometer, 28 August 2026
• Hellowork Group, Recrutement en 2027 : candidats et recruteurs en quête de confiance, survey of 2,532 candidates and 695 recruiters, 7 October 2026
• Helloworkplace, Recruter en 2027 : ce qu'il faut changer pour regagner la confiance des candidats, 8 October 2026
• JobAffinity, Application management
• French Labour Code, article L1132-1, Code du travail numérique