While ghosting was originally linked to dating (as in your date magically disappears mid-date), ghosting is now taking place in the professional sphere. Ghosting in business, however, typically happens during the job interviewing process.
The Knowledge Academy, a U.K.-based training company, says causes for increased ghosting include the good economy, low unemployment rates, competitive job markets in which searchers can afford to be picky, and changing employee attitudes.
The sectors most affected most by this failure in communication include advertising, marketing, PR and media, which saw a whopping 28 percent of job applicants suddenly ending communication in the interview process.
This is followed by Business/Finance/Legal which saw 21 percent of applicants ghosting an employer at some stage of the interview process.
In descending number, here are the percentages of ghosting in other markets:
- Retail/Hospitality 14%
- Technical services 11%
- Miscellaneous other 10%
- Education 8%
- Healthcare 5%
- Government 3%
TheKnowledgeAcademy.com surveyed 1,325 full-time employees from various industries, between March and May. They sought to discover how many had ghosted a company and how many had been ghosted by one.
Current Issue - April 2024