Only 7% of Candidates Say the Job Market Favors Them Amidst Challenges of Ageism, AI Cheating, and Ghosting

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Jul 17, 2025, 08:00 ET

AI Isn't Leveling the Playing Field: 45% of Gen Z Say the Market is Very Competitive

53% of Job Seekers Report Facing Illegal Interview Questions

NEW YORK, July 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenhouse, the leading hiring platform, has published its 2025 Workforce & Hiring Report, painting a stark reality of today's job market. Nearly seven in every ten (66%) U.S. candidates are grappling with intense pressure in a fiercely competitive market. As hiring automation, employer ghosting (or unresponsiveness), and bias reshape the hiring landscape, candidates are fighting fire with fire, turning to AI agents, resume hacks, and interview cheating just to cut through the noise. Based on a report of 2,200 active job seekers in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland, the findings highlight how Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers are navigating today's volatile hiring environment.

Job Seekers Face Stacked Odds
Hiring is entering a new era, and candidates are feeling the heat: only 7% believe the market favors them. This intensity is wearing down confidence. Nearly half of Gen Z job seekers (45%) say it's harder than ever to stand out. Poor hiring practices are compounding pressure in a market where employers hold all the power: Nearly three in four candidates (72%) say they've encountered bait-and-switch tactics, where the job they applied for turned out to be different than what was ultimately offered. Adding to the strain is a sense of instability: 4 in 5 U.S. workers feel insecure in their current role, as economic uncertainty ripples across industries. Nearly three in ten workers (28%) face employment uncertainty, with 15% reporting they've been warned their role might be affected, and 13% already experiencing reduced hours or job losses. Job hunting has become an uphill battle, and to stay competitive, over half of candidates (59%) have altered their resumes. Nearly half (45%) of those who do admit they embellish their qualifications.

AI Is the New Cheat Code
The old hiring playbook is failing, and candidates are turning to AI to stay competitive: 67% of U.S. candidates use AI tools when job searching. While 45% of job seekers use AI for interview prep, a more troubling trend is emerging: 28% now use it to generate fake work samples, making it harder to tell who is qualified. Traditional hiring systems are inundated with applications, as 22% of candidates use bots to apply; however, this figure increases by 9 percentage points for Gen Z (31%).

Despite more candidates using AI in the application process, employers remain reactive or uncommunicative about their expectations. More than a quarter (27%) of candidates say they've never seen a policy barring AI usage in hiring from a prospective employer. In the absence of clear rules, job seekers are setting their own. One in five (21%) Gen Z candidates say AI is acceptable in any circumstance, 10 percentage points higher than Boomers (11%). One in every five (19%) U.S. job seekers considers using AI in a live interview to be cheating. Amid rising pressure to compete, almost one in three (32%) candidates have claimed to possess AI skills that, in reality, they don't have. Gen Z faces the steepest skills gap: 44% cite missing qualifications as their top hurdle, nearly twice the 23% of Boomers who say the same. There are also instances of AI usage backfiring on candidates: while nearly one-third (31%) of candidates say AI has provided helpful tools, 26% say it's now harder to stand out.

"Hiring is stuck in an AI doom loop," says Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-founder of Greenhouse. "Only 7% of candidates feel that the market favors them right now. As technology advances, the system is being overwhelmed with noise. With 45% of Gen Z saying AI has made it harder for them to stand out, candidates entering the market are up against more applications, more automation, and less clarity. We don't need more friction or hoops to jump through; we need a hiring process that allows people's true selves to come through more clearly and more completely. A more human and three-dimensional hiring process that helps candidates showcase their skills and focus their job search is the only way to cut through the chaos and connect the right people to the right roles."

Discrimination as the Invisible Filter
Over half (53%) of U.S. job seekers report facing illegal and discriminatory questions. Boomers are hit hardest, with 61% reporting age discrimination, nearly six times more than Gen Z (11%), with 44% saying the biggest challenge in hiring is discrimination. Bias is forcing candidates to hide: 57% of U.S. job seekers admit they've scrubbed older experience from their resumes, and nearly a third (30%) of historically underrepresented candidates have changed their names just to get a foot in the door. The leading challenge for Boomers is discrimination (44%). However, silver workers are not alone: age discrimination dominates across all markets, affecting 31% in the U.S. Older workers face the most skepticism about their tech skills; nearly half (47%) of Boomers. Meanwhile, almost four in every ten Gen Z (39%) and Millennials (36%) have faced skepticism over their work-life balance preferences.

Ghosting Cuts Both Ways
Employer ghosting is rife in the job market. Sixty‑three percent of candidates say they are left in the dark after interviews, with Gen Z hardest hit at 78%, 24 percentage points higher than Boomers. Yet job seekers aren't blameless – one in every two candidates has ghosted an employer. Among Gen Z, almost three in every four (73%) have walked away mid-process, one in four after getting an offer (26%), and 23% following a better opportunity or a bad interview.

"When candidates feel they have to scrub experience or change their names to get noticed, it reveals the dangerous way bias decides who gets seen and who is overlooked," says Paaras Parker, Chief People Officer at Greenhouse. "Discrimination allows qualified candidates to slip through the cracks and erodes trust, damaging a company's reputation. Transparency, communication, and fairness are not optional; these characteristics are a competitive advantage for employers."

To read the full report, visit the Greenhouse blog.

Survey Methodology
Greenhouse, the hiring software company, conducted a multi-market survey of 2,200 candidates, including 1,032 U.S.-based workers, with additional respondents from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

About Greenhouse
Greenhouse is the leading hiring platform to help companies get measurably better at hiring.

With Greenhouse, organizations can cut recruiting costs and ensure every hire is the right hire, today and as their business grows. Our industry-leading, AI-powered software supports every stage of the hiring process, from sourcing to onboarding. As the only hiring platform you'll ever need, Greenhouse combines our structured hiring approach – which enables internal alignment and confident data-backed decisions – with technology-forward tools to give companies everything they need to hire top talent quickly, consistently and fairly.

We've helped over 7,500 companies across diverse industry verticals and scaling goals turn talent into a strategic advantage, so they can be ready to hire for what's next. Some of the most successful companies, like HubSpot, Duolingo, Gong, J.D. Power and Scout24, use Greenhouse for data and guidance on the behaviors and capabilities they need to improve their overall hiring performance.

Greenhouse has won numerous awards, including Fortune Best Workplaces, Inc. Magazine Best Workplace, Glassdoor #1 Best Place to Work, Forbes Cloud 100, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Inc. 5000, Crain's Best Places to Work NYC and Mogul's Top 100 Workplaces for Diverse Representation.

SOURCE Greenhouse Software, Inc.