The Labor Market and Artificial Intelligence: Employment Challenges and Job Seeking in the Modern Era

Difficulty in Finding Jobs: Young people today face significant difficulty in finding their first jobs, despite having strong resumes and diverse experiences, and submitting hundreds of applications. Many feel frustrated by not receiving responses, making job searching a challenging and continuous journey.

Stagnant Employment: Despite strong corporate profits and rising wage rates, employment has remained stagnant over the past four months. The employment rate has fallen to its lowest level since the recovery following the Great Recession. Four years ago, companies were adding four or five employees for every 100 employees monthly; now, that number has dropped to just three.

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Job Seekers

The Challenge of Getting a Job: The process of getting a job has transformed into a significant challenge in contemporary capitalism. Online recruitment platforms have facilitated the search for vacant positions, but they have made securing the job itself more complicated. Applicants send thousands of resumes drafted by Artificial Intelligence, and in response, companies use Artificial Intelligence to screen these applications. What dating apps have done to their market, modern HR practices have done to the job market; people face difficulty in getting a real opportunity.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Recruitment Processes

Companies' Use of Artificial Intelligence: For employers, the job market also operates differently. They receive a huge number of unsuitable applications, in addition to a limited number of good applications, for each vacant position. Instead of manually screening applications, they use Artificial Intelligence. In a recent survey, senior HR officials reported using Artificial Intelligence to write job descriptions, evaluate candidates, schedule initial meetings, and assess applications. In some cases, companies use chatbots to interview candidates; applicants log into a Zoom-like system and answer questions from an avatar, their performance is recorded, and an algorithm analyzes their keywords and tone of voice.

The Closed Loop of Artificial Intelligence in the Labor Market

AI Facilitates Search: Work trends expert, Priya Rathod, understands why job seekers feel their resumes "don't get through." However, she asserts that online platforms facilitate finding vacant positions, and that Artificial Intelligence can "get them to the next interview stage faster" if their applications align with employer requirements.

The Vicious Cycle of Digital Recruitment: Nevertheless, many job applicants do not reach the human interaction stage. The difficulty of getting an interview pushes job seekers to submit more applications, which in turn leads them to rely on ChatGPT to build their resumes and answer screening questions. Thus, the cycle continues: an increase in applications written by Artificial Intelligence prompts employers to use robotic filters to manage this flood. Everyone ends up in a job search challenge similar to dating apps.

Current Economic Reality and its Impact on Employment

Fragile Balance in the Labor Market: For months, the economy has been in a state of equilibrium characterized by low hiring and low layoffs; almost every sector in the labor market has frozen except for healthcare. The average time it takes a worker to find a job has increased to 10 weeks, meaning Americans spend two weeks longer in the job market than they did a few years ago. The percentage of American workers leaving their jobs has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, due to concerns about rising prices and worries about economic growth slowing down.

Unraveling Balance and Recession Forecasts

Indicators of Unraveling Balance and Recession: This balance now appears to be unraveling, and a full recession is likely. Black workers have seen a significant rise in unemployment rates, partly due to the Trump administration's mass layoffs of federal employees. More than 10 percent of workers under the age of 24 are looking for work. Lydia Bossard of EY-Parthenon consulting firm wrote in a client memo last week: "Performance- and strategy-driven layoffs are increasing, and cracks are increasingly showing."

Job Search Strategies and Recommendations

Suggested Job Search Strategies: So what does a worker do under these circumstances? Martine and Harris and millions like them are still trying to figure that out; she continues to apply for jobs, while he works in landscaping and volunteers. Rathod recommends traditional recruitment methods: inviting hiring managers for coffee, attending in-person job fairs, and polling friends and former employers for job opportunities.

Challenges of Continuing Traditional Strategies: These strategies might work if employers start hiring vigorously again. But if that doesn't happen, millions more may continue to cast their resumes into the void without success.