[Spooky23]

Legal/compliance is a significant part of it. That rejection letter has zero upside to the employer and offers many opportunities to screw up.

If a company has: a mature HR process, people who know wtf they are doing, and give a crap, they'll do rejection letters. Most lack at least one of those things.

The guy at your SMB example is some jack of all trades, and dealing your resume is a priority-2 in a sea of P1's. He doesn't have a recruiting process. Google does, but even there it's still dependent on a human making a judgement call about what to write.

[uncletaco]

What you said about my resume being priority-2 in a sea of P1s is spot on in my opinion. However the OP's assertion about fearing a legal reprisal on the grounds of discrimination is farfetched to me. People don't just go around trying to sue people who send them nasty rejection letter. If the candidate could afford the legal fees then they probably wouldn't be looking for a job.

[Spooky23]

People do.

Also, you don't need to sue. You can file an EEOC or similar complaint to your state/local Human Rights Commission. The process is designed so that you do not need an attorney. You get assigned a hearing officer, they perform some sort of investigation and issues a finding, which can include a variety of remedies.

It's not something to be paranoid about, but when you're a bigger company interviewing alot of people, you want to tie up the loose ends.