CNBC.COM
There may not be any laws against ghosting in the dating realm, but some governments are cracking down on the phenomenon in hiring.
As of Jan. 1, 2026 some companies in Ontario, Canada, will be required to inform job applicants about the status of their candidacy within 45 days of a job interview, whether a decision has been made or not, effectively banning the practice of businesses ghosting candidates during the hiring process.
The rule applies to companies with at least 25 employees and also seeks to eliminate the posting of ghost jobs, where companies post job ads for roles they're not actively hiring for. Under the law, businesses will be required to disclose whether a vacancy is actively being filled, as well as if they're using artificial intelligence to screen and select candidates.
The law "makes clear that if someone applies to your company and takes the time to interview, that you owe them a clear response and a decision," says Bonnie Dilber, a recruiting leader at software company Zapier.
"That feels like a minimum expectation," she tells CNBC Make It. "People who apply to jobs deserve to understand what's happening behind the scenes."
Companies that don't comply with the new law may be fined up to $100,000 CAD (about $72,500 USD), Bloomberg reports, though first offenses may result in warnings or lesser fines.
Half of job-seekers have been ghosted after an interview
Ghosting has become all too common in today's job market: Roughly half of job-seekers say they've been ghosted in the hiring process, meaning they've had initial conversations, and in some cases made it to final rounds of interviews, only to never hear back from the hiring team about a decision, according to Greenhouse data. Meanwhile, some 17% of all job posts on Greenhouse in the second quarter of 2025 were for roles the business never intended to actually fill.
In the U.S., state lawmakers in New Jersey, Kentucky and California have their own proposals to prevent HR ghosting in the hiring process.
The New Jersey proposal would require businesses to give interviewed candidates a clear decision of their timeline, remove job listings within two weeks of filling the role, and disclose when they post ads for roles that don't exist — otherwise they'd face a fine fine up to $5,000.
A bill to ban ghost jobs introduced in Kentucky failed to gain traction, but a similar one in California is currently under committee review, Bloomberg reports.
Dilber says it's possible that we could see more movement among states and cities that have previously passed transparency laws that center the job-seeker's experience, including in Colorado and Washington.
More regulation around using AI in hiring could come first, she adds: For example, in 2023, New York City became the first entity to prohibit employers from using AI decision-making tools to hire unless it's been audited for bias and provides required notices to applicants.
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