Canada has banned employers from ghosting job candidates

After three job interviews in London, Laura Gemma Bond travelled back to Cambridge and waited for the call that never came. Despite paying for train fares and preparing for each meeting, the marketing professional with 12 years’ experience received no response at all.

“It’s rude, it is unprofessional, it is not acceptable,” said Bond, who documented her job search on TikTok, where her posts have reached 2.3m views.

Being “ghosted” by employers after interviews has become a familiar frustration for jobseekers across many countries. A 2025 report from hiring platform Greenhouse found that 63% of candidates in the UK and Ireland say they have experienced it.

Now one part of Canada has decided to legislate against the practice. Under changes to the Employment Standards Act in Ontario, companies with more than 25 employees must notify candidates within 45 days of their final interview whether they have been successful. Employers who fail to respond can face fines of up to CA $100,000, roughly £50,000, after the law came into force in January.

“As an HR professional I cannot believe we have to legislate basic good behaviour,” said Allison Venditti, the Toronto-based founder of the Moms at Work network, who campaigned for the legislation. “If someone applies for a job, gets an interview and spends all that time on it, companies should let them know what is going on.”

Ontario’s law also requires employers to disclose salary ranges in job adverts, another measure campaigners say could help rebuild trust in recruitment. Danielle McConville, vice president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific at Greenhouse, said that ghosting erodes confidence in employers while also damaging their reputation.

“While anti-ghosting regulations like those in Canada could help establish a baseline standard, the real solution is a human-centric approach that ensures fair, respectful and structured hiring practices,” she said.

Some employer groups, however, warn that legislating communication in recruitment could add administrative burdens, particularly for companies running large hiring rounds with hundreds of applicants. Critics also say the rule may simply encourage automated rejection emails rather than improving the quality of feedback candidates receive. Recruiters note that ghosting can run both ways, with some candidates also dropping out of recruitment processes without notice.

The debate is emerging at a moment when job markets are tightening. In the UK, recent figures show unemployment nearing a five-year high as wage growth slows. At the same time, some graduates say they are submitting hundreds of applications before securing work, with reports of candidates applying for as many as 600 roles before receiving an offer.

Against that backdrop, campaigners are beginning to ask whether legislation like Ontario’s could catch on elsewhere. A petition on the UK government and parliament website calling for a legal requirement for employers to respond to interviewees has been launched, though it had gathered only 98 signatures at the time of writing.

“Once accountability measures are introduced in one jurisdiction, they quickly influence practice elsewhere,” said Jessica Ciccozzi, founder of the Australian executive advisory from East Executive.

Main image: Marten Bjork