So, there’s that. The fact that the January 2026 jobs report showed 130,000 jobs gained, mostly from healthcare, and unemployment fell to 4.3%. But, there were a lot fewer jobs last year than previously reported.
Without getting into debate about the accuracy of the jobs numbers, and whether private data is better or not (ADP only showed 22,000 jobs gained), for most people looking for jobs right now, it continues to be rough; it feels like there are no jobs. It’s the worst job/candidate market since the pandemic and the mortgage crisis. This is especially true for salaried professionals, management, and senior leadership.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen multiple LinkedIn posts from job seekers who have applied for multiple jobs but haven’t heard back from most of them. Again and again and again. This was the most common negative sentiment theme from our 2025 CandE Benchmark Research (available for download) was:
Lack of Communication, Ghosting, and No Follow-Up: Referring to the complete absence of status updates, lack of response after applications or interviews, and failure to provide promised follow-up, leaving candidates perpetually “in limbo”.
During recent workshops I’ve delivered, I asked the attendees what percentage of candidates do they think said they haven’t heard back after they’ve applied. It’s always a high percentage.
But in our CandE research data, it’s not as high as you’d think and it’s decreased over the past few years. For example:
- In 2025, only 13% of hourly candidates said they’d been waiting 2+ months to hear back.
- Only 13% of professional (salaried) candidates said they’d been waiting 2+ months to hear back.
- 18% of management candidates said they’d been waiting 2+ months to hear back.
- And 18% of senior leadership candidates said they’d been waiting 2+ months to hear back.
These are all down from 2023 (see all the data tables below). The percentages do go up when they said they’d been waiting 1-2+ months to hear back, but are still lower compared to 2023 (although hourly went down in 2024, it jumped back up again in 2025). So, at least for the companies that participated in our benchmark research, whether they won a CandE Award or not, seemed to have improved their responsiveness. This isn’t easy to do when you’re a company receiving hundreds or thousands of applications per job – but it can be done.
However, those candidates who said they’d been searching for a job for 4+ months did increase across job types since 2023:
- Hourly candidates’ time searching for jobs increased 89% since 2023.
- Professional candidates’ time searching for jobs increased 24% since 2023.
- Management candidates’ time searching for jobs increased 21% since 2023.
- Senior leadership candidates’ time searching for jobs increased 24% since 2023.
What’s the most telling out of all of this data is how candidates rate their application experience based on how long they waited to hear back based on our 2025 data:
- Hourly candidates gave their application experience a 64 NPS when they heard back in less than 1 month, compared to a 4 NPS when it was 2+ months.
- Professional candidates gave their application experience a 62 NPS when they heard back in less than 1 month, compared to a -20 NPS when it was 2+ months.
- Management candidates gave their application experience a 42 NPS when they heard back in less than 1 month, compared to a -32 NPS when it was 2+ months.
- Senior leadership candidates gave their application experience a 40 NPS when they heard back in less than 1 month, compared to a -27 NPS when it was 2+ months.
Those were some precipitous drops in ratings and they continued throughout all the recruiting stages when lack of communication, ghosting, and no follow-up continued. Theoretically, and at a minimum, every single job candidate should receive an acknowledgement when they apply and communications about next steps if they’re screened further, or if it’s the end of the road. And it shouldn’t take months to hear back, even for the hardest to fill positions. If searches are taking longer, then candidates should receive status updates, even if there’s not a lot of information to share.
Your talent acquisition teams control the dials of how and when they communicate with all the job candidates. If you want to improve their candidate experience and reduce overall negative sentiment at the point of application, then you should turn those dials to highly responsive. Your employer brand and candidates will thank you.
Waiting 2+ months to hear back after applying for a job
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Hourly | 13% | 9% | 10% |
| Professional (Salaried) | 13% | 19% | 23% |
| Management | 18% | 22% | 23% |
| Senior Leadership | 18% | 27% | 31% |
Waiting 1-2+ months to hear back after applying for a job
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Hourly | 28% | 21% | 29% |
| Professional (Salaried) | 28% | 41% | 45% |
| Management | 36% | 45% | 47% |
| Senior Leadership | 37% | 56% | 56% |
Actively searching and applying for jobs for over 4 months
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Hourly | 17% | 12% | 9% |
| Professional (Salaried) | 24% | 24% | 18% |
| Management | 23% | 23% | 19% |
| Senior Leadership | 26% | 27% | 21% |
2025 application stage NPS Ratings by when candidates heard back after applying
| Less than 1 month | 1-2 months | 2+ months | |
| Hourly | 64 | 37 | 4 |
| Professional (Salaried) | 62 | 25 | -20 |
| Management | 42 | -7 | -32 |
| Senior Leadership | 40 | 1 | -27 |
