One in four UK workers believed they had applied for a “ghost job” in the past year, as frustration with recruitment left many people deciding it was not worth searching for a new role.
Younger workers appeared to be most affected, with a survey revealing that more than a third of 18 to 34 year olds saying they thought they had applied for roles that did not exist. The same age group was also more likely to say their current job had been difficult to secure.
The findings were published by Employment Hero, an HR, hiring and payroll software company, after it commissioned polling of 1,000 UK workers through research provider OnePoll last November.
Younger workers reported higher exposure to ‘ghost’ listings
The research found that 24% of UK workers said they believed they had applied for a ghost job, rising to 37% among 18 to 34 year olds. Employment Hero described ghost jobs as roles that were advertised despite the employer not genuinely recruiting.
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The poll also found that only 38% of roles appearing in job searches were seen as genuinely relevant, suggesting jobseekers were struggling to separate genuine vacancies from irrelevant listings.
Ghost roles could be posted for several reasons, Employment Hero said, including building a candidate pipeline, testing salary expectations or benchmarking the market without immediate plans to hire. It also warned that some listings could be linked to phishing attempts designed to collect personal information from jobseekers.
Alongside the prevalence of ghost listings, workers reported a job market that felt increasingly difficult to navigate. A third of respondents, 33%, said their current role had been difficult to find, rising to 46% among 18 to 34 year olds.
Candidates disengaging from the market
The most common frustration was a lack of response from employers. Four in five workers, 80%, said they had applied for a job and received no response, while 54% described this as the most frustrating part of the process.
Workers also pointed to time-consuming recruitment tasks, long delays between interviews and being ignored after progressing through stages. In the poll, 46% said time-consuming tasks were the worst part of recruitment, 44% cited long waits between interviews and 42% said they had been “ghosted” after interviewing.
The experience appeared to be affecting job mobility, with 61% of workers saying the job search or hiring process had put them off looking for a new role altogether. The figure rose to 69% among younger workers and 67% among women.
Nathaniel McAllister, founder of Hurdle, a community for people navigating career change, burnout or redundancy, said ghost listings were adding to an already demoralising process.
He said being made redundant in March 2025 had initially left him expecting to find a new role quickly, but he said he soon encountered lengthy hiring processes with little communication. “Ghost jobs are becoming a real problem, especially on LinkedIn. They make the whole job-hunting experience even worse,” he said.
McAllister said he had learned to look for warning signs such as repeated reposting of the same vacancy and job ads shared daily by recruiters. He added that older listings could be a sign a candidate was unlikely to hear back. “These patterns don’t guarantee it’s a ghost job, but they’re a warning sign,” he said.
He also said younger workers were facing additional challenges due to competition from candidates whose early careers had been disrupted by Covid. “I left university in 2023 and was competing with people whose entry-level roles had been delayed during Covid, which put me at an immediate disadvantage because they often had more experience in the workplace,” he said.
He said employers increasingly expected evidence of practical skills and achievements, even for entry-level jobs, and argued that delays and poor communication made it harder for candidates to stay motivated. He also acknowledged the strain on employers dealing with high volumes of applications, adding: “I spoke to a company recently that received 4,500 applications for a single role, with many applicants not even matching the criteria of the role itself.”
Calls for clearer recruitment practices and verified listings
Employment Hero’s UK managing director, Kevin Fitzgerald, said the findings pointed to a loss of trust in recruitment, particularly among younger candidates.
“Young people are facing one of the toughest job markets the UK has ever seen. On top of fewer opportunities, many are applying for roles that don’t exist, and even when they do, candidates are being ghosted,” he said.
Fitzgerald said the situation was damaging confidence and slowing career mobility. “This creates a huge trust problem and also stalling career mobility,” he said.
David Holland, managing director of talent at Employment Hero, advised jobseekers to be wary of roles that appeared to be permanently open or repeatedly reposted, and to look for listings with clear responsibilities and practical details.
He said candidates should expect basic information such as location, working hours and hybrid arrangements, and suggested asking recruiters directly whether a role was an approved vacancy with a clear timeline.
The research suggested employers could also face consequences if candidate experiences continued to deteriorate, including reduced trust, lower engagement and fewer applications from skilled workers who opted out of the market altogether.
