Pausing, closing, reopening and archiving a job

How to pause, unpause, close, reopen, duplicate, archive and delete a job, who can do each, and what candidates, job boards and people already in the pipeline see.

Every change to a job's status is made from the job itself, using a button at the top right or the ⋮ menu beside it. This article covers each change one by one. For what each status means and the order a job moves through them, see "Job statuses explained".

Who can do what

Only System Admin and HR users can change a live job's status. Hiring managers, recruiters, members and agency users do not see these buttons. Archiving, unarchiving and permanent deletion are limited to System Admin.

The ⋮ menu is the three dots at the top right of the job page, next to the status buttons. Only the actions that fit the job's current status appear in it. If two people act on the same job at once, the second change can be refused because the job has already moved on. Refresh the page and check the status.

Pausing a job

Pause takes a job out of action for a while without closing it. You decide whether candidates can still apply.

1. Open a Published job.
2. Select the ⋮ menu, then Pause.
3. Choose Block new applicants or Allow new applicants. Block is selected when the box opens.
4. Select Pause Job.

If the job is live on external boards, the box first warns you how many boards it is advertised on and that those postings will be pulled.

Use Allow when you want to stop advertising the role on paid boards but still take applications from people who already know about it. Use Block when nobody should be applying.

A paused job keeps its place in your pipeline. Video interviews already set up for the job are left live so candidates who were invited can finish them, but automatic video interview reminders stop while the job is paused and start again when you unpause. A paused job still closes automatically if its closing date passes.

Unpausing a job

1. Open the paused job.
2. Select Unpause, then Unpause Job in the box that opens.

The job goes back to Published and keeps its original published date. If you paused with Block, your careers page posting is put back automatically. If you paused with Allow, the careers page never came down, so nothing changes there. Either way, external boards are not restored. Open the Job Boards tab and use Post to More Boards to advertise on them again. A board you pulled shows the label "Previously unpublished". The box warns you of this before you confirm.

If the careers page posting does not come back, for example because a required detail on the job is now missing, the job is still Published. Check the Job Boards tab and add the careers page again with Post to More Boards.

Closing a job

1. Open a Published or Paused job.
2. Select the ⋮ menu, then Close Job.
3. In the Close this job? box, read the message. If the job has live or in-progress external postings, the box says how many will be withdrawn automatically.
4. Select Close Job.

The job stops accepting applications and moves to Closed. Every posting is taken down and set to Unpublished, including your careers page, so the job disappears from the careers page and candidates who open the link see a "Job not found" page. Applications sent through Indeed for a closed job are refused. Any video interview setup for the job is archived.

Recruit also closes jobs for you. Within about an hour of a job's closing date passing, a Published, Scheduled or Paused job is closed automatically, with the same effects as closing it by hand.

Reopening a closed job

1. Open the Closed job.
2. Select Reopen. The Reopen Job box opens.
3. Tick the boards to republish to. Your connected boards are ticked when the box opens. If your organisation has switched on the Internal Careers Page, only the Company Careers Page is ticked and you choose the rest. Complete any board options and, for paid boards, tick the charge acknowledgement.
4. Check the Expiry date. It starts at the job's old closing date if that is still in the future, otherwise 28 days from today.
5. Select Reopen & Publish (N boards).

The job returns to Published, and the expiry you choose becomes its closing date. Do not clear the field if the old closing date has passed: with no future date the job would be closed again within the hour. A date in the past is refused with an "Invalid date" message.

Reopening resets the job's Published date to today and records you as the person who posted it. If the job reopens but publishing to the chosen boards fails, you see "Job reopened, but publishing failed". The job is live again, so fix whatever the message lists and publish from the job. "Publishing a job to job boards" covers the boards, the options and the charge acknowledgement, and "Troubleshooting failed job board postings" covers failures.

Video interviews for the job are set up again from scratch on reopening. Invitations sent before the job was closed no longer work.

Duplicating a job

Duplicate makes a fresh draft from an existing job, which is the quickest way to advertise the same role again.

1. Open the job and select the ⋮ menu, then Duplicate. You can also use the ⋯ menu on the job's row in the Jobs list.
2. Recruit creates the copy and opens it. A message reads "A draft copy has been created. It has not been sent for approval."

The copy is titled "Copy of" followed by the original title, and you become its hiring lead. It carries over the job's content and details, pipeline stages, application form, compliance packs, scorecard questions, recruitment team, shortlisting settings and onboarding template. It does not carry over the closing date, approval history, board postings or any applications. The copy starts as a Draft, so it needs approval (where your organisation requires it), setup and publishing like any new job. To find it later, filter the Jobs list by the Draft status. Duplicating never changes the original.

Archiving and unarchiving

Archiving is for jobs you have finished with but want to keep. Only a Closed job can be archived, so close it first.

1. Open the Closed job.
2. Select the ⋮ menu, then Archive.
3. In the Archive this job? box, select Archive.

The job moves to Archived. Nothing is removed. Its applications, candidates, notes, offers and history all stay. To see archived jobs, open the Jobs list and set the Status filter to Archived, or to All statuses. The list shows Published jobs by default.

To bring one back, open it and select Unarchive. It returns to Closed, not to Published. From there you can use Reopen.

Deleting a job permanently

Delete Advert removes a job and everything attached to it. It exists for test adverts created during demos or trials. This cannot be undone.

1. Open the job, select the ⋮ menu, then Delete Advert. It is at the bottom of the menu, in red.
2. Read the What will be removed list. It shows the job's status, how many applications it has and how many board postings are live.
3. If the job has any applications, type the job title exactly as shown to unlock the button. A job with no applications does not ask for this.
4. Select Delete Advert.

Live postings on external boards are taken down first. If Recruit cannot take one down, the delete is stopped and the job stays exactly as it was, so retry or unpublish the postings from the Job Boards tab and try again. On success you see "Advert deleted" and return to the Jobs list.

The job's applications, approvals, interviews, offers, referrals, attachments and pipeline data are deleted with it. Candidate profiles are kept and stay searchable. Video interview setup for the job is archived.

Archiving compared with deleting

If there is any chance you will need the job's records again, archive it.

People already in the pipeline

None of these changes moves, rejects or emails a candidate who has already applied. Pausing, closing and archiving leave every application in its current stage, and people with access can still open the job and work with the candidates in it. Only new applications are affected, and only when the job is Closed, Archived, or Paused with Block new applicants.

Two side effects are worth knowing. Reminder emails to candidates who started an application and did not finish it stop while the job is not open to applicants. Reports that cover job adverts and costs, including the Adverts report and the Cost analysis report, count only Published and Closed jobs, so a Paused or Archived job drops out of them until it is back to one of those statuses.

Notifications

Recruit does not send an email to candidates or colleagues when you pause, unpause, close, reopen, archive or duplicate a job. If candidates need to know a role has closed, contact them yourself.

The one related email is the advert expiry reminder. About 24 hours before a Published job's closing date, its hiring managers are emailed if they have Advert expiry switched on in their notification preferences. If the job is paused, closed or archived before the email goes out, it is not sent. Each change is recorded in the audit log with the person who made it, and jobs closed automatically are recorded as closed by the system.