Nearly half of New Zealand job hunters say an employer has gone quiet on them. Employers say candidates do it too.
Employment Hero, a company that sells HR, payroll and recruitment software to New Zealand businesses, released research in October 2026 on how hiring is going for both sides. Of the workers it surveyed, 44% said they’d been ghosted while looking for a job, and 40% said they got little or no feedback when they missed out.
A quarter had applied for a role that was already filled. Another 12% believed they’d applied for a job that was never really open.
The silence goes the other way as well. About a quarter of hiring managers said a candidate they’d chosen had ghosted them, and about half of businesses said they’d lost good candidates because their process was too slow.
Why the inbox is overflowing
Neil Webster, Employment Hero’s New Zealand general manager, told RNZ that much of the problem comes down to application volumes, some of them generated with AI. He also pointed to unemployment, which is putting pressure on both sides of hiring.
Stats NZ put the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 5.6% in the June 2026 quarter, up from 5.4% in the March quarter, with 171,000 people out of work. That’s the highest rate in Stats NZ’s series since the September 2015 quarter. South Island unemployment was lower, at 3.7%.
SEEK, the job listings site, says applications per job ad rose 2.9% in August, the sharpest monthly rise since April 2024, though they were still 2.1% lower than a year earlier. “This suggests competition for roles remains high, even as hiring activity holds steady,” says David Swift, SEEK NZ’s sales manager. Job ads on SEEK were 7.8% higher in September than a year earlier.
What a slow process costs
When the preferred candidate takes another offer, the role goes back to the start. That means another round of screening and interviews while the work waits. Half the businesses in Employment Hero’s survey say a slow process has already cost them a good candidate.
A few habits help a small team handle the volume and still let people know where they stand.
Put a reply date in the ad, such as within two weeks of closing, and keep to it. A short, polite decline to every applicant is better than nothing, and some recruitment software can send one to the whole list at once.
Add two or three screening questions about the actual job, such as a scenario the person would face in their first month. A generic AI-written application struggles to answer them well, so the shortlist comes together faster.
Lock in the interview dates before the ad goes live, and decide who signs off the offer. Then a strong candidate isn’t left waiting on a manager’s calendar.
Anyone who’s been interviewed has put in real time, so they deserve a phone call or a few lines of specific feedback. When a role is filled or put on hold, take the ad down that day. A quarter of the workers surveyed had applied for a job that was already gone.
If you’re the one applying
Answer the screening questions properly, using the employer’s own terms from the ad. A CV that does that gives a busy hiring manager a reason to stop scrolling.
At the end of an interview, ask when they expect to decide and how they’ll let you know. If that date passes, follow up once, politely, then put your energy into the next application.
If you miss out after an interview, ask for one or two things you could do better. Keep the request short and specific.
If you take another job or decide a role isn’t for you, tell the employer. About a quarter of hiring managers have been left hanging by a chosen candidate, and New Zealand’s a small place for a reputation.
Silence costs both sides. A two-line email costs almost nothing.
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