The passive candidate: who they are, what the data says, and how to write to them

You post a job and wait. The people who write in are the ones who were browsing job ads that week. But the person who best fits your search probably has a job, is reasonably happy, and doesn't read job boards. That's the passive candidate.

What a passive candidate is

A passive candidate is someone who isn't actively looking for a job. That doesn't mean they wouldn't move: they may be open to talking to a recruiter, sounding out options through their network, or simply happy where they are.

There's no single way to measure it. Employ's yearly survey of workers asks each person whether they're actively looking for a job and how open they are to other opportunities. It's the most recent source, and the one we use here.

The number, with its source and its year

Zogby Analytics ran the survey online for Employ, among more than 1,500 US adults who work full- or part-time or are looking for work. The report came out in 2025. It covers the US only.

The same report has the number that completes the first: 85% are at least somewhat open to other opportunities, and 46% call themselves "very open". It isn't an odd year: in 2024 the figures were almost the same, 86% open, 46% very open and 42% actively looking.

And the 70% everyone quotes

The most repeated number about passive candidates is a different one: "70% of professionals aren't looking for a job". It comes from a LinkedIn survey run in February and March 2015 among 20,931 employed members in 29 countries, which asked each person to classify their own situation. 70% described themselves as passive and 30% as active. In the same survey, 71% of professionals in the US and Canada said they wanted to hear from a recruiter about new opportunities, and in its list of hiring statistics from that year LinkedIn puts the two together: 87% of candidates are open to new opportunities.

It's a ten-year-old number, and LinkedIn hasn't published that split again. The two surveys don't ask the same question of the same people either, so going from 70% to 58% isn't a trend. What both say is what matters: most people aren't looking, and most would listen to an offer.

A note on that source: the LinkedIn blog post that announced those numbers is no longer online, and its address now leads to a sales page. The full report, as a PDF, is still published. It's linked at the end, next to Employ's.

Why the number matters

The exact split moves with the economy and with how the question is asked. What doesn't change is the mechanics. A job ad only reaches the people looking that week. The person who fits a specific role — the one already doing that job, at a similar company — almost always has a job and isn't reading job boards. If your search depends only on who applies, you're choosing from a fraction of the market.

The number comes with a warning, too: passive isn't the same as available. Of the 85% who are open, just over half call themselves "very open". So you don't post an ad for a passive candidate: you write to them, and how you write matters.

How to write to someone who isn't looking

1. Start with them, not with your company. One line that shows you read their path: the project, the technology, the change of role. It's what separates your message from the other twenty.
2. Say what it is and who it's for, early. The role, the level, the kind of company and, if you can, the range. Someone who isn't looking won't ask: if you don't say it, they don't reply.
3. Ask for little. A fifteen-minute conversation, not a CV or an interview. The first yes is to a chat, not to an application.
4. One follow-up, not five. If they don't answer, a short reminder a week later. Then leave the door open.
5. If they say no, ask what would make them move. And write it down. Today's passive candidate may be next year's active one, and they'll remember you as the person who wrote well.

A message that works looks something like this:

Where Reclee comes in

Writing well is your part of the craft. Finding who to write to is the part that takes days: boolean searches, profiles open in twenty tabs, a spreadsheet so you don't lose the thread.

Reclee does that part. You ask for the search in one sentence, it searches over 800 million profiles — including people who aren't reading job ads — and hands you a longlist scored against your criteria, with the reason for each one. The message, the conversation and the decision are still yours.