Where Passive Candidates Actually Are (And How to Find Them)


Hireline
5 min read Jun 25, 2025

Here’s the reality: if you're relying solely on job boards to source candidates, you're fishing in the same 20% of the labor market as every other recruiter. The remaining 80%? They're not on job boards. They’re not browsing LinkedIn. But they are somewhere—and that somewhere is where your sourcing strategy needs to go.

If your candidate flow has stalled, it’s not because the talent doesn’t exist. It’s because you’re not meeting them where they already are.

This post is all about helping you find passive candidates before they start looking, and the solution isn’t more outbound cold outreach or LinkedIn headhunting.

Defining the Job Market

When we say "20% of the market," we're referring to active job seekers—the small subset of the labor force actively browsing job boards, submitting applications, and ready to switch jobs today.

The other 80% are passive candidates: they’re employed, not searching, but statistically open to new opportunities. These individuals make up the majority of the working population—and if you're not engaging with them, you're missing out on the biggest slice of the market.

According to LinkedIn:

  • 70% of the global workforce is made up of passive talent.
  • 87% of active and passive candidates say they are open to new opportunities.

Additionally:

  • At least 72.5% of Americans use social media (Pew Research, 2023)
  • Social media has significantly higher reach than job boards like Indeed or ZipRecruiter.

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TL;DR

  • Job boards only reach ~20% of the labor market
  • Passive candidates are on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
  • Millions of brands already use these platforms to convert consumers. Recruiters can do the same to convert talent.
  • Social media allows you to generate warm leads at scale—without grinding through manual outreach
  • Hireline is the out-of-the-box system to do all of this for you (more on that below)

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Where Most Teams Go Wrong

When sourcing dries up, most recruiters turn to manual cold outreach:

  • LinkedIn headhunting
  • Yellowpage-style contact lists
  • Inbox grinding and follow-up hell

This is understandable. By definition, passive candidates aren’t applying, so you have to go get them. But here’s the truth:

Most passive sourcing strategies are built for burnout.

They require tons of mental bandwidth, tech stacks, personalization, and time. It’s 1-to-1 work in a world where you need scalable results.

You don’t need to abandon outbound. But you do need to start treating passive candidates like what they are: humans who live on the internet just like the rest of us.

The Real Passive Candidate Channels

Your best-fit candidates probably aren't hanging out on LinkedIn. They’re:

  • Watching tool reviews on YouTube
  • Browsing memes on Instagram
  • Keeping up with their community on Facebook
  • Watching how-to or lifestyle content on TikTok

They're not job-hunting, but they are scrolling. That makes social media the ultimate passive talent real estate.

If you want to reach the 80% of candidates who aren’t searching on Indeed, meet them where they are.

Why Social Media > Job Boards for Passive Talent

  • Volume: The average person spends 2.5+ hours per day on social media (Smart Insights).
  • Intent: Passive candidates aren’t actively searching, but they are open. According to LinkedIn, 70% of the workforce is passive, and more than half say they’d consider a new role if the right one came along.
  • Engagement: Your jobs become content—not just listings. You can tell a story, show visuals, and sell the role.
  • Scale: You can run ads and organic campaigns that get your message in front of thousands—without manual outreach.

If brands can run Instagram ads to sell $8 shampoo, you can run job ads to attract $80,000 technicians.

What a Better Strategy Looks Like

Here’s the shift:

❌ Stop relying only on cold outreach and job boards

✅ Start building opt-in awareness via social media

Use the same strategies consumer marketers use on social media:

  • Still-image job ads and visual creatives that catch attention mid-scroll
  • Geo-targeted ads that only show in markets where you're hiring
  • Mobile-first design so it's effortless to engage

This is how you turn passive candidates into warm leads—without chasing them down 1-to-1.

Plug: Don’t Want to Build This From Scratch?

Most teams don’t have the bandwidth to launch this kind of strategy in-house. That’s exactly why we built Hireline.

Hireline helps you:

  • Build and launch passive sourcing campaigns on social media
  • Turn cold audiences into warm leads with opt-in job funnels
  • Pre-screen and qualify candidates so your recruiters only speak to people who fit

It’s out-of-the-box. No tech stacks. No learning curve. No extra headcount.

If you want to see what passive sourcing could look like for your roles, let’s talk.

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Next up in The Passive Talent Pipeline Series: How to Get Passive Candidates to Pay Attention (Offers That Cut Through Noise)