As 2025 approached, the US labour market’s placid exterior belied currents of stagnation, discontent, and concern. Employers were taking longer to fill available positions, and an increasing percentage of disengaged workers were remaining in their current positions because of fear that it would be difficult to find better employment.
Elon Musk, President Donald Trump, and their Department of Government Efficiency have now let go of thousands of federal workers. These employees are now going back to work. Additionally, because tariffs are constantly changing, businesses and workers alike are attempting to predict the effects of tumultuous financial markets. This economic turmoil is bringing the turbulent currents of the labour market to the forefront.
Many job seekers are using new artificial intelligence-powered job-finding applications in response to these difficulties. Ironically, though, these tools are probably going to make the current problems worse and make finding a job more difficult rather than easier.
Understanding the history of AI tools and how businesses currently recruit people can help one comprehend why these tools, which are intended to assist individuals in applying for jobs, will make the labour market more difficult to traverse.
The use of AI in the hiring process is not a recent development. When businesses started using AI-powered technologies to sift through the hundreds of applications they were receiving for open online job posts in the 2010s, it became widely used on the employer side.
The AI algorithms integrated into these applicant tracking systems, which are programmes used by businesses to oversee the recruiting process, searched for phrases that matched those in job descriptions and incoming resumes. The resume of a job seeker most likely passed the screening if there was a sufficient match.
On the surface, these techniques appeared to provide employers an edge over job searchers. The majority of actual hires were not selected from the pool of applicants who applied online without having any contact with the hiring manager, although businesses did use these tools to narrow down their hiring funnels.
Instead, estimates indicate that more than half of jobs, possibly as high as 85%, are still found through personal relationships, even in the face of the democratisation of internet job advertisements. This imbalance is caused in large part by the lack of trust that exists between employers and job seekers when they communicate online.
These days, online job descriptions are a lengthy list of abilities, credentials, and generalisations about work culture and style that have been lifted from previous job descriptions, advertisements from rival companies, and requirements for salary and title grading at the appropriate level of the position.
The ambiguity and meaninglessness of today’s job descriptions make it impossible to fill roles as specified. Consider the numerous job advertisements for entry-level positions that require “two years of experience.”
Many job descriptions require college degrees, despite some employees lacking them. Indeed, it might occasionally seem like businesses are searching for people who don’t exist if you look through enough job advertisements.
At the same time, as AI-powered applicant monitoring systems filter out candidates who don’t fit the required qualifications, experiences, and traits outlined in these job descriptions, potential hires have learnt to exaggerate their resumes and make themselves appear superhuman. Applicants are increasingly inflating their experiences to get past AI-powered gatekeepers.
This cycle has resulted in a lack of trust in the cover letters and resumes submitted online. Because of this, HR managers frequently like to find candidates through a reliable referral from a person they know. Yes, that could result in a longer time to fill available positions. However, if a better fit is found, the delay can be worthwhile from the standpoint of the business.
This dynamic has the effect of making it unlikely to assist job searchers as they start applying for jobs online, utilising AI tools. In fact, it is probably going to put the labour market into a hiring doom cycle driven by AI, which will force companies to hire even more people from their personal networks.
A recent Canva poll found that 45% of job searchers worldwide use AI to draft and edit their cover letters and resumes. Additionally, an increasing number of job seekers are taking a more drastic approach by applying directly to available positions on their own behalf using AI-powered apps like JobCopilot and LazyApply. Unfortunately, positive experiences with these AI-powered apps are not common. Because hiring managers will receive more applications than they can handle, it might get increasingly harder for job seekers to find a position online as more of them use these automated application systems.
Companies that previously received only hundreds of applications for available positions now report receiving thousands. As a result, companies will probably rely more on human contacts to help them locate personnel, since they have less faith in the AI-tailored resumes that are flooding the market.
Hiring practices that place an undue emphasis on personal relationships cause issues for employers as well as job seekers. Businesses will probably continue to find that their new hires belong to the same social circles as their current staff, even when they try to increase the diversity of their applicant pool by attracting a lot of candidates.
There are drawbacks to network-based hiring for job seekers as well. If landing a job is based solely on who you know, it frequently leaves out people with small networks. As demonstrated by Raj Chetty’s Opportunity Insights research at Harvard University, networks are heavily influenced by class, especially at the top.
Accordingly, people from disadvantaged socioeconomic origins frequently have a far smaller number of high-income contacts. Additionally, considering how many jobs are filled by people you know, low-income Americans have fewer opportunities to access higher-paying occupations.
As these relationships become more important in job hunting, people must build their networks in real life, not just on social media or with AI bots.
Although networking may “feel dirty,” it will become more and more important as AI complicates the job search process. Instead of reaching out to a prospective network member specifically to request a job, develop the habit of showing interest in the work that other professionals do. To find out what they do on a daily and weekly level, speak with people who hold positions that interest you.
In other words, learning and development should be the main focus. Your network will grow over time, and you will discover what kinds of jobs suit you, your special talents and background, and the kinds of work that excite you.
Becoming a self-aware person who knows what opportunities exist, appreciates what they have to offer, and shows genuine interest in other people should be the aim. This will make you stand out as someone whom people who trust you would recommend, which is something AI cannot replicate.
The rise of AI in the job market was supposed to democratise opportunity. Instead, it is accelerating inequality, deepening mistrust, and forcing both job seekers and employers back toward an old, uncomfortable truth, which is that real-world relationships matter more than ever.
In the noise of AI-generated resumes and mass applications, trust has become the ultimate currency. Credentials are losing weight. Cover letters are losing their impact. Algorithms are flooding inboxes with thousands of lookalike profiles. Employers, overwhelmed and disillusioned, are turning inward, opting instead to rely on personal networks and human recommendations to find the talent they can trust.
This implies that individuals who foster genuine human connections will subtly rule the new economy, while those who rely solely on automation will face exclusion. It is no longer enough to build a LinkedIn profile or send out a hundred AI-enhanced resumes. You have to show up as a real, curious, engaged person who is present in the spaces where opportunity lives.
The future belongs to those who are willing to build trust the slow, real, human way. Those who do will find that even in a turbulent labour market, doors will quietly open where none seemed to exist.