Three in Four Australians Have a Recruitment Horror Story

New Employment Hero research shows recruitment is failing both sides of Australia’s job market: young workers are being ghosted and lured by phantom job ads, while slow, admin-heavy hiring is costing businesses their best candidates.

Sydney, Australia, 28 October 2026 – This Halloween, the scariest stories in Australia aren’t on screen. They’re in the inbox. Three in four of Australia’s workforce have lived through a recruitment nightmare, from being ghosted by employers and left without feedback to applying for jobs that never existed.

New Employment Hero research reveals a job market haunted on both sides. Candidates are being ghosted, strung along by phantom job ads and left waiting on feedback that never comes, while businesses are being buried alive by admin and watching their best candidates vanish before an offer goes out. And the ghosting cuts both ways, with hirers now worried about being ghosted by the very candidates they want.

Generation Ghosted: young Australians chasing jobs that don’t exist

Receiving little or no feedback after missing out on a role is the most common recruitment nightmare, affecting 41 per cent of surveyed Australians. One in three (33 per cent) of Australian job seekers and hiring managers say they have been ghosted while searching for a job.

Younger workers are becoming Generation Ghosted. 32 per cent of Australians under 35 have been ghosted during recruitment, compared with 20 per cent of those aged 35 and over. Under-35s are also more likely to have applied for a fake role or one that was never genuinely open (20 per cent versus 11 per cent for those aged 35 and over). It’s not simply that young people apply for more roles. At the very moment they’re trying to get a foot in the door, they’re being ignored by employers and lured by jobs that were never there.

Employment Hero Managing Director of Talent Solutions David Holland said the findings show recruitment is failing the very people it is meant to serve, from jobseekers to employers, and that the measure of better hiring is simple: more Australians in work.

“Behind every ghosted application is a person trying to get a job and behind every slow process is a business trying to grow. When recruitment breaks down, nobody wins: jobseekers miss out on work they’d thrive in, and businesses lose the people they need.

“For young Australians especially, being ignored or chasing a job that never existed isn’t just frustrating. It knocks their confidence at the very start of their working lives. Our focus is on maximising human employment: getting more Australians into the right jobs, faster.”

Kim Seeling Smith, AI and business futurist, comments: “Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the human connection in the job search process. For candidates and hiring managers alike, recruitment has become time-consuming, frustrating and often unreliable.

“The research shows that even when candidates make it through the hiring process, the experience can still fall short. Too many are left waiting for responses or wondering where they stand. AI has the potential to turn this around by making recruitment more efficient and freeing people up to focus on what matters most. But it needs to be used thoughtfully, to enhance the human experience rather than replace it.”

Slow hiring is haunting both sides

Candidates aren’t the only ones facing the ‘process monster’. Nearly six in ten hirers (59 per cent) agree there’s too much manual administration, while 55 per cent are frustrated by the time spent reviewing applications and coordinating interviews.

That time comes at a cost: 51 per cent of hirers agree they lose good candidates because their recruitment process is too slow, while 24 per cent fear being ghosted by their preferred candidate.

For jobseekers, the same delays can be enough to end the search before it begins. More than one in five (22 per cent) of Australia’s workforce have lost interest in a role while waiting for a response, while 20 per cent have abandoned an application midway through because the process took too long.

Lifting the curse: technology that frees people up to hire like humans

Both sides want the process fixed, and see a role for technology in doing it. More than half of hirers want technology to help identify candidates who are a good fit (60 per cent), simplify screening and shortlisting (59 per cent) and reduce time to hire (54 per cent). Australia’s workforce who are not sole traders looking for the same thing, with 39 per cent saying technology could help match them with roles suited to their skills and experience.

AI is already showing promise, with 44 per cent of hirers saying it is helping their organisation make better hiring decisions. However, 35 per cent of hirers are unsure of its impact or aren’t using AI at all, suggesting there is still room to build confidence and adoption.

Holland says technology should serve the people on both sides of the process, not stand between them.

“Technology should never be the thing that decides who gets a chance. Used well, it takes the admin off hiring teams’ plates so they can do the human part properly: respond to every candidate, give real feedback and make the call. That’s how we lift the curse on recruitment for both sides.”