I'm not surprised 'graduate ghosting' is on the rise: I was ignored as a young job seeker too, says HARVEY DORSET

When applying for jobs, you don't always receive a reply from prospective employers.

Nor, some might argue, should you expect one. You simply might not be what the employer is looking for, and more often than not you are facing up to hundreds of other applicants for each role.

Employers are finding it difficult to manage the masses of applications they receive for job openings and are increasingly turning to simply ignoring prospective candidates who don't pass muster at the first hurdle.

Part of the process of job hunting is the acceptance that you, as the applicant, will put in hours of work on applications that won't come to fruition.

The job market is becoming increasingly competitive, as more candidates compete for fewer job postings, each attracting hundreds, if not thousands, of applications.

In August, there were 661,639 new job postings in the UK, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, a decrease of 3.8 per cent compared with July.

Before Joining This is Money as a young reporter in 2024, this was a process I became well acquainted with.

I spent hours tailoring CVs, writing cover letters explaining my suitability for a role and painstakingly preparing for interviews.

On a few occasions, even after attending an in-person interview, I was met with total silence and simply left to assume I hadn't got the job.

Now, it seems this is changing from an unfortunate but rare occurrence in the job hunting process to not only the norm, but the expected outcome for most job applications.

The practice, dubbed graduate 'ghosting' – the act of cutting communication with somebody without warning or explanation – is becoming commonplace among stretched employers.

It applies across the recruitment sector, rather than just to graduates.

A third of all jobseekers say they have been ghosted by employers at application stage, figures from Indeed show, with 65 per cent saying the practice from employers has become 'normalised'.

However, it is more pronounced among young jobseekers, as they tend to apply for a broader range of roles and don't always have the industry experience or connections to know what might be a good fit.

Nicola Weatherhead, vice president of people at Totaljobs, said: 'Graduates today are entering the toughest job market we've seen for years with more people applying for fewer available jobs.

'Businesses are being inundated with hundreds of CVs, and given these volumes, employers may find it difficult to respond to every candidate, especially when resources are limited.

'Many employers still rely on manual recruitment processes, with recruiters spending 17.7 hours per vacancy on admin tasks alone.'

As many as 37 per cent of students said they never hear back from hiring managers, while a further 35 per cent say they hear back on less than half of their applications, data from student housing brand Yugo indicates.

According to figures from Totaljobs, Gen Z jobhunters apply for twice as many jobs as older workers before they land a role.

One graduate from Bournemouth University, Krish Lodhi, said: 'On LinkedIn, you're left refreshing your inbox until your self-esteem evaporates.'

Lodhi is right. One role I applied for back in 2023 looked ideal, offering a role ideal for my experience level at a publication that is both widely known and respected.

When the offer came in to do an online screening interview with the company's recruiter, I jumped at the chance.

I was clearly a fairly suitable candidate, a writing test soon followed as did an invitation for a final interview at the company's central London office.

The interview went well, and I left convinced that I had made a good impression, giving strong answers and bonding with the interviewer about living nearby to one another.

Yet two weeks later I had heard nothing and sent off a quick follow up email to the recruiter. 'I was just wondering if there was any update on the role,' I asked, but was met with silence.

Another two weeks passed, and I emailed again: 'It would be great to hear back regardless,' I wrote, hoping that my email had just slipped through the cracks.

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Of course, no reply came. The publication had chosen its favoured candidate, so why bother wasting time telling the others that they hadn't made the cut?

Emily Porter, global senior brand manager at Yugo, said: 'Our survey shows students are ambitious and ready to succeed, but silence from employers can be confusing and disheartening.'

This works both ways though, with some 60 per cent of jobseekers saying they feel it is fine to ghost employers, as employers do the same to them.

Nine in ten employers said being ignored by applicants during the hiring process was damaging to their company.

Totaljobs' Weatherhead added: 'Tracking applications can help ensure you have full oversight throughout your job hunt. Remember, proactively following up after a couple of weeks if you don't hear back can be a worthwhile approach - you have nothing to lose.

'Focusing on the quality over quantity of applications is also key.

'Simple errors like incomplete or poorly formatted applications and spelling mistakes are preventing 50 per cent of applications from making it through the first stage.'