The dating term crossed into the job market when candidates stopped showing up.
The word "ghosting" first gained wide use in dating culture around 2014, describing the act of ending a relationship by ceasing all communication without explanation. By the late 2010s, hiring managers and recruiters began using the same word for a phenomenon they were seeing in the labor market.1
Candidates would complete multiple rounds of interviews, accept a job offer, and then never show up on their start date. No phone call, no email, no explanation. The term migrated because the behavior was structurally identical.2
Employers had practiced their own version for decades without naming it. Applicants who submitted resumes and never received a response, candidates who completed interviews and heard nothing for weeks, employees who were laid off with minimal notice. The word ghosting made the behavior visible by giving it a name, and the name came from workers, not from management.3
A 2019 survey by the recruiting firm Robert Half found that 28 percent of workers reported having ghosted an employer during the hiring process, and the firm noted a significant increase in this behavior during low-unemployment periods when candidates had more options.4
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell mentioned workplace ghosting in a 2018 speech about labor market conditions, describing it as a sign of a tight job market where workers held unusual bargaining power.5
The word arrived at the intersection of two shifts. Digital communication made it possible to end contact without a face-to-face conversation. The weakening of long-term employment norms made job commitments easier to abandon. A 2021 Indeed survey found that 28 percent of job seekers had ghosted an employer, up from 18 percent in 2019.6