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Strong job market means employees are 'ghosting' their employers

With a stronger job market, a growing number of Americans are "ghosting" their jobs.

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With a stronger job market, a growing number of Americans are “ghosting” their jobs.

As the job market grows stronger, candidates are blowing off scheduled job interviews, accepting offers, but not showing up for the first day of work and vanishing from existing positions without giving notice.

“Employees are in the driver’s seat and they’re being rude and disrespectful and etiquette has literally gone out the window,” Vera Gibbons, founder of Nonpoliticalnews.com said.

“It’s the assistant that now has to cover the phones and it’s the other person who was going to go on vacation that maybe now has to still check their emails because somebody isn’t there to cover them,” Marley Majcher, author of “But Are You Making Any Money,” said.

With the May unemployment rate at a near 18-year low of 3.8 percent, there were more job openings than unemployed people for just the second month in the past two decades.

“The tide has turned. You’ve got a very strong labor market and, as a result, it’s inspiring a lot of bad behavior,” Gibbons said.

According to the labor department, the proportion of workers who quit jobs, typically to take another one, hit its highest level in 17 years in May.

While “ghosting” was not unusual in lower paying fields, Detroit staffing agency Merit Hall said it’s happening with up to 20 percent of white collar workers, as employees decide to simply stop showing up.

“You used to see it in construction or blue collar jobs. Now, we’re completely seeing it in white collar America with educated, high-end financial services, banking, PR, everything,” Majcher said.

For businesses, no-shows mean wasted costs because employers have to go back to the drawing board.

“That costs the company, small or large, money,” Majcher said. “What happens when the costs go up? The prices they charge for a product or services go up, so it might seem like it’s not a big deal for you to just not show up for your interview, but that’s the bigger picture.”