LinkedIn CEO: job seekers send 30% more applications

The hiring crunch Shapero describes sits on top of a labor market that has gotten tighter for candidates, not looser. U.S. job openings fell to a five-month low of 7.08 million in August, and the number of Americans hired each month—excluding the pandemic—is nearing a 10-year low. That scarcity is what pushes applicants to apply in bulk, and AI makes bulk cheap: nearly two-thirds of job seekers now use it for resumes, cover letters, interview practice, and career guidance.

The response from employers has been symmetrical. Around 99% of hiring managers say they use AI in the hiring process, according to a 2025 report from Insight Global, and 63% of U.S. job seekers have already faced an AI interviewer. Greenhouse chief people officer Sharawn Tipton described the result as a trust gap on both sides, with recruiters worried about being replaced and candidates getting the worst of it. LinkedIn's own AI Hiring Assistant, which Shapero says never auto-rejects, is one attempt to sort the pile without simply discarding it.

The open question is whether that sorting actually restores signal. Shapero's point—that the sea of applications looks similar because everyone is optimizing for what they think employers want—suggests the problem is less volume than resemblance, and tools that screen for fit may struggle if everyone has already tailored to the same target. How that plays out will matter most to recruiters and to candidates with multiple degrees, who the Simplify data shows are applying at the highest rates.