Job applications are a nightmare ― and only getting worse

Job applications are so frustrating, 57 per cent of candidates quit before finishing

WE MAY SOUND like a broken record on this topic, but the modern job application system is almost universally panned as awful, inefficient and overly time-consuming. It’s a wonder anyone gets a job at all anymore.

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Or to put it another way, it’s a wonder anyone can hire a new employee at all.

Backing this up is a new survey indicating is has become much more than a minor annoyance ― an overly complicated or time-consuming job application is actively pushing people away. LiveCareer’s 2025 Job Search Frustration Survey found that a healthy majority ―57 per cent of today’s jobseekers ― are regularly abandoning job applications mid-process because they’ve just grown too onerous.

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“When motivated workers are quitting applications midway, or doubting whether anyone sees their efforts, it’s a sign that something’s broken in the system,” said career expert Jasmine Escalera.

Yes, the job market itself is not great right now, but that’s only part of what is making the job search (and on the flipside, recruiting talent) such a nightmare. The complete trust deficit in the hiring process is another. Survey data from Gallup has shown that a positive, human and respectful interview process is a net benefit for both employer and employee ― that all things being equal, the company with the better interview process is more likely to land the better talent ― and yet LiveCareer’s findings reiterate that most employee-employer relationships are getting off on the wrong foot.

“Banish lengthy application portals that require candidates to manually retype their entire résumé,” said ZipRecruiter’s in-house career expert Sam DeMase. “Considering the volume required of today’s candidates, each application should take less than 10 minutes to fill out.”

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Experts reiterate this isn’t just hurting jobseekers, but employers, too. If we’re at least assuming companies are hiring because they want to gain a good employee out of the process, by deploying candidate screening tools that claim to be powerful, but which are in reality a pain in the neck, they’re likely contributing to the problem of low morale ― that star new employee is burned out and exhausted before they even step foot in the door.

“Ultimately, you want to attract people to your organization, so applying for a job shouldn’t feel like work,” said Jason Jeverant, president of staffing agency AtWork. “It should feel like the beginning of a partnership.” Kieran Delamont