Young people applying for entry-level roles send a great many applications and hear back from very few, as a BBC Scotland report this week shows. Hiring teams can change part of that experience by stating timelines up front, closing every application with a reply and telling interviewees what feedback to expect and when.
A thousand applications, five interviews and no role
On 2 November 2026, BBC Scotland reported on Casey Smith, from Renfrewshire. She estimates she has applied for close to a thousand jobs in cleaning, retail and hospitality (among others), and has had about five interviews. She has called every shop in her area twice, and been visiting the job centre since she was 16. She is now nearly 20.
Casey is one of a large group. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in April to June 2026, 13.0% of that age group. Of those, 393,000 were unemployed and looking for work, and 588,000 were economically inactive.
Data from Scotland show that where a young person grows up still shapes their odds. Skills Development Scotland found that on average, 93.6% of 16 to 19 year olds were in education, training or employment in 2026 (up from 93.3% a year earlier). Young people from the most deprived fifth of Scotland had an 89.1% rate, while in the least deprived fifth, the rate rose to 97.5%.
Ghosting in entry-level hiring is not just bad for the applicant
When an entry-level vacancy draws a large number of applications, replying to each one can slip down the list. For the employer, it’s one role. For a young applicant, it is often repeated across every job they apply for.
“You’re waking up every day and you’re doing the same thing, applying and applying, and you’re not hearing anything,” Casey told BBC Scotland. Her ask of employers is a modest one: feedback when they turn someone down.
Candidates like Casey rarely hear back on their application. But while ghosting is rarely done maliciously, it can really impact candidates, who lose trust in the process, struggle to move on, and don’t learn anything from the experience.
For someone who has put effort into an application, a quick no is far more helpful than silence, and one line on why helps them apply better next time. That matters most for early careers applicants: without much work history to learn from, feedback is often the only signal they get about what was missing. There are plenty of tools available (like Screenloop) that help close the gap, lighten the load and help candidates at the same time.
The silence costs the employer too. CIPD notes that a poor interview experience can undermine an employer’s brand, because candidates often share their impression with other applicants and with potential customers. In retail and hospitality in particular, entry-level applicants themselves are often customers as well.
Practical steps for entry-level hiring
So what can time-strapped employers do about it? Here are some practical tips employers can adopt today.
Be upfront about how long it will take. CIPD advises telling candidates in advance what to expect from selection, including how long it will take, and keeping the process no longer than it needs to be. Putting the timeline in the advert and in the acknowledgement email helps drive the point home.
Close every application. Let everyone know what happened to their application, whether it was reviewed, rejected, or proceeded to the next stage. Automation can help do this at scale, with messaging going out when a stage closes (to ensure it does not depend on someone remembering).
Tell interviewees what feedback to expect. Acas suggests doing this at the end of each interview, and CIPD recommends that employers set up a standardised process for giving feedback. For an entry-level role, one specific point tied to the role criteria often helps the applicant more than a long letter.
Check what the role really needs. Review the advert and screening criteria for requirements an entry-level job does not need, such as experience in the same role elsewhere, and judge every applicant against the same criteria.
Ask applicants how it went. A short survey after each stage shows where communication breaks down and where applicants drop out.
How Screenloop can help
The teams that reply to every applicant are not the ones with the biggest, most expensive tech stacks. They’re the ones with processes that do the remembering for them. Here’s what that looks like with Screenloop.
Applicant tracking. Every applicant and every stage for a role sits in one place, so closing an application is a status change rather than something a recruiter has to remember.
Standardised scoring. Scorecards tied to the role’s criteria mean a decision comes with a reason attached, which makes auto-generated, constructive feedback possible.
Automated messaging. Templates that fire when a stage closes, so everyone who applied hears back without anyone writing several hundred emails.
Candidate Pulse. Anonymised surveys at the stages you choose, so you can see how applicants rate each stage and where they drop out.
Interview intelligence. A record of what was asked and what was answered in each interview, so decisions can be checked later and feedback comes from notes rather than someone’s recollection a week on.
Keen to learn other ways to strengthen your employer brand? Watch our free webinar on Employer Branding (hosted by our partner, Equitas).
FAQ
What does NEET mean?
NEET stands for not in education, employment or training. The ONS uses the term to refer to young people aged 16 to 24 who are in none of these, regardless of whether they are looking for work or not.
Do employers have to give feedback to unsuccessful applicants?
Not in the UK. Acas advises telling interviewees what sort of feedback to expect, and CIPD recommends having a process for giving it, but neither sets out what must be given to every applicant. That is not the case everywhere, and it continues to change. In Canada, for example, the government has decided that recruiters need to, at the very least, update a candidate within 45 days of their final interview. Not doing so is enough to trigger a human rights complaint or lawsuit. This is general information, not legal advice.
